Summer 2015 marked the launch of the International Office’s U.S Sports and Culture Immersion Program (SCIP). Thirty students and two chaperones from the Shanghai University of Sport called UT home for four weeks from mid-July into August. The program centered around an interactive classroom experience taught by faculty from the Department of Curriculum & Instruction’s Physical Education Teacher Education program.
SCIP also featured a series of panels with staff from University Athletics, RecSports, the Texas Program in Sports & Media, and The H. J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sport. Participants toured nearly every sporting venue in UT and Austin, including Darell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, Cooley Pavilion & Frank Erwin Center (led by legendary former women’s basketball coach, Jody Conradt!), UFCU Disch-Falk Field and a mild yet wild morning at the Circuit of the Americas.
Participants chanted ‘Texas Fight’ & ‘The Eyes of Texas’ with our very own UT Spirit Squad and went head-to-head with athletes with disabilities in a wheelchair rugby scrimmage. They embarked on a kayaking and standup paddleboard adventure around Ladybird Lake and took in an evening of teeing off at Topgolf Austin.
And of course no trip to Texas would be complete without a little education on local culture and history, so the group trekked to the Texas State Capitol and Bullock State History Museum. The program concluded with a sunset riverboat dinner cruise up and down Lake Austin.
We’re eager to welcome our next cohort in 2016!
