In October of 2019, The Rams Club launched FORevHER Tar Heels, an initiative to build and inspire a Carolina community that champions and empowers women student-athletes not only through financial support of scholarships, facilities, and teams, but also through enhanced career development and mentorship.

The FORevHER Tar Heels mentorship program was announced on February 29, 2020, and paired 40 female student-athletes with 40 Carolina alumnae and friends who are passionate about supporting these young women and helping prepare them for life after Carolina.

“Doing research on that particular demographic, it showed that female donors are more interested in transformational engagement as opposed to transactional engagement,” said Shelley Johnson, Director of Carolina’s Baddour Leadership Academy. “Transformational engagement is more interpersonal, and through a mentor program, it allows a donor to be on the ‘front lines’ of seeing how student-athletes are impacted by their investment.”

Johnson got involved with the FORevHER Tar Heels mentorship program at the suggestion of former Rams Club Associate Executive Director Sue Walsh, in order to provide an element of form and structure to the program.

“Research shows that one of the things where mentor programs tend to fall apart and lose their impact is that there isn’t a structure, and with our experience and curriculum that we’ve developed through the Leadership Academy, we’ve been able to provide that level of structure to the engagement experience,” she said. “Having been a former student-athlete, this is something that’s near and dear to my heart. Professionally and personally, it was an opportunity to be engaged in something unlike anything I’ve ever been involved with.”

HOOP PHI

Two of the 40 inaugural mentors in the program are Tiffany Tucker and Jennifer Williams, a pair of Carolina Women’s Basketball alumnae who were teammates for two seasons in the early 2000s. Both Tucker, Deputy Athletic Director at UNC-Wilmington, and Williams, Chief Development Officer of the USA Basketball Foundation, were excited about the opportunity to mentor the next generation of Carolina women’s student-athletes.

“It’s a great opportunity to interact with someone who has walked the same hallways, slept in the same dorms, and made the same sacrifices they have as a student-athlete,” said Tucker. “I definitely promote giving back to the Rams Club and I give back financially, but it’s also important that we share our time with current student-athletes. It’s not just leaving a legacy when you were there as a student-athlete yourself. It’s about continuing to share wisdom to the student-athletes who are currently there on campus.”

“The initiative was something that was near and dear to my heart,” added Williams. “Just pouring into those young ladies who may not know what they want to do, but now they have women who have been in their shoes before, now into their careers, who can give them that guidance and provide that support system if needed.”

Coincidentally, both women were matched with women’s basketball student-athletes – Tucker with Janelle Bailey, and Williams with Jaelyn Murray. While the men’s basketball team is known for the “Carolina Family” moniker, the women’s program has their own “family,” known as Hoop Phi.

“It’s almost our own ‘sorority’ in a way,” said Tucker. “We’re women who’ve worn the jersey of the University of North Carolina and we’re bonded together by that uniform and the collective experience we’ve all had.”

Even through the pandemic, with Tucker in Wilmington, Williams in Denver (and prior to that, Alabama), and Bailey and Murray in Chapel Hill, both mentor-mentee pairs continue to stay in constant contact via text. It’s what family does.

“[The “Zoom” world] isn’t as bad for me because I’m not local, and I check in frequently with Jaelyn through text,” said Williams. “Now, when the pandemic hit, I was in a different role. I was an athletic director [at Alabama State], and trying to figure out how to get my kids competing safely, all while I was pregnant. I had a ton on my plate, and I shared that with Jaelyn at the time, and she was super understanding.”

The pair were able to connect in person when Alabama State traveled to Cary to play in the Women’s College Cup in 2021.

“When we traveled to Cary, I made the effort to go to campus, catch a practice, talk to Jaelyn in person and talk to Coach Banghart and the team,” Williams said. “When Coach Banghart was introducing me to the team, noting that I was a three-year captain, Jaelyn interjected and said, ‘She’s also my mentor!’ which was pretty cool.”

Tucker noted that when she and Bailey both took the DiSC personality assessment, part of the mentorship program, the similarities between the two didn’t end with basketball.

“We are literally both alike,” Tucker said. “We have exactly the same personality type. The universe brings people together in unique ways. We’re both very results-oriented, we’re action-based people. We love a challenge. We’re very enthusiastic, and it was interesting that we were able to connect so early, based on that personality assessment.”

A CONTINUING BOND

Talking to both Tucker and Williams, it’s clear the impact that the mentorship program has had on the mentors themselves.

“When I look at Jaelyn, she doesn’t get a lot of minutes, but she inspires and encourages the team in so many other ways,” said Williams. “Through watching her, she’s taught me the importance of a positive attitude, and how to uplift and inspire those around you with a more visible role to continue to be great.

“I would love to be local and be able to get to more games and see Jaelyn in person more often. But I hope she knows that this isn’t just a FORevHER Tar Heels thing. I’m locked in with her and will advocate for and support her once she graduates and goes into her career.”

When asked if they wished a mentorship program was in existence during their time at Carolina, both women answered with a resounding “Absolutely!”

“Even through COVID, we’ve been able to build these intimate relationships with these young women who are literally cut from the same cloth we’re cut from,” said Tucker. “We know, we understand the sacrifice, and I know for a fact that it would have been incredibly beneficial to have a formal relationship with an alumna that I could call on, or she could check in with me to say, ‘I’m here for you and am just wishing you well.’”

“This program would have been tremendous, not just to me, but to a lot of my teammates who didn’t necessarily have it all figured out,” Williams said. “I think several of my teammates could have really benefitted from hearing from professionals in certain roles so that they didn’t just focus on basketball. The mentorship program pairs student-athletes with mentors who could talk to you about how to transition once the ball stops bouncing. Once the ball stops bouncing, how do you reinvent or redefine who you are and what your career looks like?”

As the FORevHER Tar Heels mentorship program prepares to welcome its second student-athlete/mentor cohort later this year, both women are eager to continue to participate.

“I’ll continue to participate as long as they’ll have me,” Tucker said. “It’s only going to make our university better, it’s only going to make our department of athletics better, to continue to have these relationships with these student-athletes so that they’re able to connect with women at a different level from a different perspective, who have also worn the uniform.”

“As alumnae, we want to continue to be mentors to the women’s basketball team while they’re in school,” Williams concluded. “They know they have a sister who will always be part of that sisterhood and support circle, long after they’re done playing.

“As long as the FORevHER Tar Heels program will have me, I’m locked in.”