For Jameel Cosby, Bluffton University brought opportunity with athletics but also within academics. He’s a sophomore double majoring in business and sport management, a member of the men’s basketball team and the peer mentor for Marathana Prothro’s section of Becoming a Scholar.
Cosby is from Springfield, Ohio, and was attracted to Bluffton because of the homelike atmosphere.
“When I came on my visit here, I liked how small the campus was, and I really liked how nice people were when approaching me, and I really liked the facilities the school had to offer,” Cosby said. “I just really felt like I was home when I stepped on the campus.”
Although Bluffton allows the students, community and faculty to connect with each other, Cosby found a way to become even more involved by becoming a Becoming A Scholar mentor.
“I became a mentor because when I was taking the class, I really liked how my mentor got to be involved with the class and help other students,” Cosby said. “ It was something I could see myself doing, and I wanted to use the opportunity to become one and to also be someone that other students could model themselves after.”
Cosby believes that being a mentor to other students means being someone they can come to discuss issues, whether the issue is school-related or not. For Becoming A Scholar, Cosby hopes to help guide the students in the right direction of success with the class.
With Cosby being a sophomore, he has already experienced Becoming A Scholar and uses this as a way to give advice to those in the class now.
“Some advice to the freshman in Becoming A Scholar is to not wait until the last minute to do the work and don’t push things off,” Cosby said. “ Once you wait until the last minute to start things, whether it has to do with school or not, the stress will start to kick in and you’ll stress yourself out too much and that will lead you to not be focused on the things you should be focused on. Do the work ahead of time to avoid stress.”
Prothro said she invited Cosby to be the mentor because she wanted someone who other student-athletes would be able to look to as a model of how to be successful in the classroom and on the court or field.
“Not only is Jameel talented and hardworking as a basketball player, he is equally dedicated to his schoolwork, and that’s the kind of student leadership I wanted my students to see modeled,” Prothro said. “Plus, he’s just a nice, approachable guy, and I think that goes a long way when it comes to encouraging students who typically struggle or might be less likely to reach out to me for help.”
Jameel Cosby shoots against Hanover College in the 2018-19 season. Photo by Ashley Teman
Being a student-athlete, Cosby uses strategies to balance school work with his athletics. One of these strategies is by using his free time before practice or after practice to get school work done so that during games and practices he can focus on basketball and be able to block out anything that might get in the way of his focus.
“Some trusting advice to my fellow student-athletes is to not let stress get the best of you,” Cosby said. “If you put your mind to focus on maintaining good grades and performing well during your sport, everything will fall into place.”
For this 2019-20 basketball season, Cosby, who started as a freshman and averaged 11.3 points and 4.7 rebounds per game last season, is most excited to be one of the top teams in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference this year.
His biggest goal for basketball is to do everything possible for his team to have a successful season and win a championship. Some improvements that Cosby reflected on from last year included the team’s depth chart. He is determined for the team to improve the chemistry and be on the same page throughout the whole season with a hard-working mentality.
When putting together the experiences of being a mentor and a teammate, Cosby hopes to learn to not hold out on himself.
“What I mean by that is for me to not be afraid to take chances or to speak up in situations to make myself known,” Cosby said. “I also want to learn to be a more outgoing person and have more of a figure of a leader.”
