Two women take top spots in WSSU athletics: Part One

Student athletes have a new adviser to help them in the classroom.Leslie O. Bolden was recently named as the coordinator of athletic/academic support services. The position was created by Dr. Percy “Chico” Caldwell, the atheletics director and Tonia Walker, the associate director of athletics with the help of Chancellor Harold Martin.”We are obviously happy to have a person with a strictly academic focus in the athletics department,” Caldwell said in a release. “The academics of our student-athletes are steadily improving and Leslie brings added value and another dimension to our department.”In the position, Bolden will advise the university’s more than 150 student athletes. Bolden has worked for the university for a number of years advising students. But her connection to the university goes back much further. Her father served as the university’s registrar and her mother was an instructor in the School of Business.Bolden attended Hampton University. After getting her degree in finance, she worked in the insurance industry for several years. Eventually, though, she came back to WSSU. After getting her master’s degree at N.C. A&T State University, Bolden began advising students at WSSU and teaching a freshman seminar class.Bolden has been working closely with the coaches and the student athletes since June and recently moved into a new office in the C. E. Gaines Center. In her new job, Bolden will help students with pre-registration and monitor grades and course selection. She will also monitor student athlete’s academic progress and ensure that they are on track to get their degrees. “It’s a great challenge,” she said.Bolden said she is also working to improve communication between parents and the coaching staff..She said she hopes to be able help athletes make the best of her time at WSSU.”That’s why I’m down here in the center of action, so that I have access to the coaches and they have access to me,” Bolden said. “The athletes can always come by and see me anytime.”