Support swells for iPALS summer enrichment program

A group of Illinois physical education alumni are supporting one of the College of Applied Health Sciences’ longest-running youth programs as it returns to Champaign.

Three graduates of the former Department of Physical Education for Women at Illinois—Carolyn Bechly, Jean Snuggs and Lyndell Wilken—have pooled their resources into an endowment to help fund the Illinois Physical Activity and Life Skills program, also known as iPALS. The summer wellness program for local children is also a steppingstone for Illinois student educators to develop their skills.

“We’re hoping iPALS can be part of their practical experience, building on what they’ve learned in a classroom,” said Wilken, who graduated in 1972 and became a coach, physical educator and athletics administrator.

The eight-week iPALS program run by the Department of Health and Kinesiology in Applied Health Sciences brings in local schoolchildren every summer for a full day-camp experience, with structured playtime, academic enrichment, social-emotional learning and nutritious snacks available each day. 

Beyond a summer opportunity for at-risk youth—every child participant qualifies for SNAP benefits or free-and-reduced lunch—the program doubles as a research study, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The premise of the study: to see if regular physical activity, summertime enrichment and specialized nutrition can curb “learning loss,” the regular backsliding of academic achievement that occurs over summer break. Enrollment in iPALS is completely free.

The University of Illinois has a long history of youth summer programs. iPALS was originally the “Sport Fitness” program, where physical activity was the focus. With community input from partnering local school districts, faculty leaders have developed a more balanced approach over the years, between academic and social enrichment, exercise and nutrition.

Many of the daily snacks served to iPALS kids contain lutein, a carotenoid common in leafy green vegetables that settles in our eyes and brain, supporting our eyesight and cognitive health. The iPALS participants, ages 6 to 11 years old, take fitness, academic and cognition assessments at the beginning and end of the program to measure its direct impacts.

“Given that physical activity participation is among the most robust behavioral approaches to support both physical and cognitive health, we anticipate that the iPALS program has the potential to have a meaningful impact on children in our community,” said principal investigator Naiman Khan, associate professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology.

During iPALS days, the kids move from station to station, with each stop run by Illinois graduate students. The researchers purposely use students with diverse backgrounds: nutrition majors running the snack station, education majors running academic enrichment, and physical educators structuring the playtime.

“For me, the most important aspect is that we provide a safe space for eight hours a day where kids are guaranteed meals and snacks, surrounded by adults who care about them, and they’re able to build relationships with peers experiencing similar realities,” said HK Associate Professor Kevin Richards, who researches the teaching of physical education. “That impact is difficult to capture with data, but it is the most meaningful part of the program.”

Interested families can visit the iPALS website and complete the eligibility survey to see if their child qualifies for the program. This year’s iPALS will take place at Booker T. Washington STEM Academy in Champaign on weekdays from June 3 to July 17.

A Motivated Donation

The teaching experience available in the iPALS program mirrors the student teaching opportunities that were available to prior generations of Illinois physical education majors. Months after the passage of landmark Title IX legislation in 1972, the Illinois departments of Physical Education for men and women were fused, just as Bechly, Wilken and Snuggs happened to embark on their careers.

Under Title IX, every education program that received federal funding had to ensure equal access for students regardless of sex. Schools nationwide had an imperative to start girls’ sports teams, and a dire need for coaches. Some states, including Illinois, mandated that coaching slots be filled by women.

Suddenly, these new Illinois physical education graduates had their work cut out for them. 

“It was an amazing time, and busy,” Wilken said. “The opportunities were huge, also the workload you sustained, because you were a full-time teacher and you weren’t given anything extra for coaching—just the love of sport and wanting girls to have opportunities that drove most of us to essentially do it for free.”

The three women quickly discovered the lessons from the Illinois’ physical education program were useful in the field. They had learned under department legends such as professors Phyllis Hill and Beulah Drom, who instilled foundations in childhood motor skills and structuring class-time for physical education. The pedagogy of P.E. was scientific and practical: to help students understand the joy of movement, you’ll have to get them to line up single file as well.

“The science of it was really fascinating … you learned how to learn things, which carried over into how to teach,” Snuggs said. “In retrospect, it was always incredibly teaching-oriented.”

Wilken, Snuggs, Bechly and their cohort have retired, mostly, from long careers in physical education and coaching, spanning secondary schools, colleges and universities. They owe much of their lasting bond with their classmates to the passage of Title IX, and the whirlwind of entering the field together, giving student-athletes—particularly young women—opportunities that didn’t exist for themselves.

“We graduated, Title IX happened, and we fell into wonderland,” Bechly said. “Us starting as brand-new teachers, to be able to coach and experience stuff we didn’t really experience to that level, it was just fabulous.”

Naturally, shared professional experiences led the cohort to stay in touch and collaborate. Wilken made a spirited call to Snuggs back in 1979: Wilken was leaving her post at the American River College in Sacramento after founding its women’s track and field team. The school would need a new athletics administrator, and a new coach.

“I had never run a track race in my life, but Lyndell said, ‘Hey, you might like this, why don’t you apply?’” Snuggs said. Snuggs got the job and stayed at American River College for more than 30 years, retiring as its dean of physical education in 2012. Wilken went to work at Lane Community College in Oregon, coaching its cross country and track teams to four conference championships.

Today, more than 53 years after the passage of Title IX, these alums have reconnected with their alma mater. After dialogues with the current faculty of Health and Kinesiology, the iPALS program seemed a good target for their financial support, mirroring their own student-teaching experiences at Illinois.

Their Supervised Teaching of Physical Activity/Nutrition Fund will support iPALS indefinitely. The founders have put out an open call for alums, including fellow physical educators, to donate.

“We’d like the students working there in the summer to be future physical educators, and that they continue being mentored and teaching,” Bechly said.

Families can register their kids for this summer session of iPALS now. In the meantime, the PEW alums hope more supporters help sustain the program.

“Physical education is a wonderful opportunity for kids to make decisions at whatever level, in terms of how they deal with others, how they deal with winning and losing. It’s heavy-duty stuff they can use for the rest of their lives,” Snuggs said.

Editor’s note:

To learn more about iPALS or sign up your child, visit the program’s webpage.

Want to contribute to the Supervised Teaching of Physical Activity/Nutrition Fund (Fund #778014)?  Donate or email our AHS Office of Advancement at advancement@ahs.illinois.edu.

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