Photo by: Harrison Barden
Using Her Homefield Advantage: Anna Harvey
12/1/2020 2:32:00 PM | Women's Basketball, Student Athlete, Features, Flight 45, Intellectual Development
By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications
Entrepreneurship piqued Anna Harvey's interest in high school, so the women's basketball sophomore jumped at the opportunity to be involved in Homefield Advantage this fall, the new program offered to student-athletes by Lehigh Athletics in partnership with the Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation.
"In high school, I did a capstone project related to entrepreneurship, which was a year-long process," said Harvey, who is in Lehigh's IBE (Integrated Business and Engineering) program. "Homefield Advantage was the first time in college I had seen an opportunity like that, and it was also specific to student-athletes."
The goal for the 18 student-athletes in the eight-week program was to create ways for more people to experience the advantages of secure living conditions.
The program ran from late September through November, ending with the final pitch competition.
"My group worked towards a solution to improve air quality of homes in Los Angeles," said Harvey. "Our solution was to use existing products like air purifiers, trying to make them available to low-income families who suffer from air pollution."
While some Homefield Advantage teams focused on increasing housing opportunities, Harvey's Sustainable Sustainability group worked on making existing conditions better.
"We wanted to improve the health benefits for those who live in low-income housing," she said. "A lot of low-income housing is placed next to big power plants, which let off fumes, to go with exhaust from cars. Especially with the recent wild fires, people in low-income housing don't have access to things that will improve their health."
The process for Harvey, and her team, to get from point A to point B wasn't always easy. It was much like athletics – when the road often features many ups and downs.
"We got kicked in the butt a few weeks ago," said Harvey. "Chris Kauzmann (from the Baker Institute) drew a picture that we were here, but going around and around in circles. We weren't getting anywhere."
At that point, the student-athletes refocused and started reaching out to constituents such as landlords.
"We gathered a lot of demographics and other data and found where, and what product, was needed," said Harvey. "We also worked with a mentor, [Lehigh women's lacrosse alumnus and former student entrepreneur] Lauren Beausoleil. Lauren helped us realize how and where we needed to make strides, and where we needed to be going."
One significant attribute of student-athletes is coachability.
"As athletes, we take that coachability piece to heart," said Harvey. "Our group of athletes said to ourselves let's figure this out… we got this. We need to be ready and need to have this down before we can beat anybody else [in the final competition].
"We need to be ready to compete."
That moment of getting "kicked in the butt" could be compared to something from athletics.
"It was like when you're down 10 at the half and you have that halftime talk," said Harvey.
Harvey found the leadership and coaching of the Baker Institute's Kauzmann and Getzler, along with Athletics' Julie Ammary, Katie Guynn and Cait Gillard to be very effective. They tailored their coaching specifically to student-athletes.
"They pushed us more aggressively as athletes, which was good," said Harvey. "It was an actual coaching mindset. I really appreciated all their time, and everyone else's time, including my teammates."
Harvey took a lot away from Homefield Advantage, as did all the student-athletes.
"It was okay if we didn't have all the steps done," she said. "This was an eight-week program. It's not year-long where you could have the actual solution embedded into the system. They said to be really honest in our presentation about where we'd go next."
Admitting you don't have all the answers is a byproduct of self-awareness, much like on the playing field.
"In basketball, you have the point guard, post, wing, shooting guard and forward," said Harvey. "Everybody has their own job, but it's about finding the way we all click together. Everyone is going to make mistakes, but we've got to keep going."
The entire experience helped Harvey reshape her thinking.
"What you think is the solution vs. the needed solution aren't always the same things," she said. "You need to go to the source to see if it's needed."
Going to the source demands communication. Instead of communicating within the athletics landscape this fall, it happened in a different setting (since the fall seasons were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
"We had a team-first mindset," said Harvey. "It's about us as a team figuring it out together. We all put in a lot of effort to make it the best presentation possible. No person was ahead of the other."
Team-first mentality is an important quality that makes up a strong athletics team. It's even one of Lehigh's Five Pillars of Athletics Leadership – along with self-awareness (mentioned earlier), integrity, competitiveness and toughness.
The competition at the end of the eight weeks tied in perfectly with the pillars as well.
"As athletes, we're so competitive," said Harvey. "Even though this experience didn't provide us any class credit, we were trying to make a difference in the world and trying to help others. There was definitely an initiative and incentive to do this program."
As Harvey learned, entrepreneurs fail… a lot. It's another parallel to athletics, and part of the reason entrepreneurs and athletes are such a natural fit.
"All athletes have to deal with failure," she said. "You may turn the ball over or miss a shot, but you just have to keep going and figure it out."
That's exactly what Harvey's team did.
"I'm very thankful for this opportunity because there were definitely moments, especially during the shutdown, when there was no outlet," she said. "We all have our other classes, but that got very tiring very fast and we were able to switch it up with something like this.
"Julie said we were able to invest all of our frustrations into this program," Harvey continued. "It was a good distraction, and the fact we're trying help people was a huge plus.
"Huge thank you to all the people [with the Baker Institute and Athletics] who pushed us to improve."
Entrepreneurship piqued Anna Harvey's interest in high school, so the women's basketball sophomore jumped at the opportunity to be involved in Homefield Advantage this fall, the new program offered to student-athletes by Lehigh Athletics in partnership with the Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation.
"In high school, I did a capstone project related to entrepreneurship, which was a year-long process," said Harvey, who is in Lehigh's IBE (Integrated Business and Engineering) program. "Homefield Advantage was the first time in college I had seen an opportunity like that, and it was also specific to student-athletes."
The goal for the 18 student-athletes in the eight-week program was to create ways for more people to experience the advantages of secure living conditions.
The program ran from late September through November, ending with the final pitch competition.
"My group worked towards a solution to improve air quality of homes in Los Angeles," said Harvey. "Our solution was to use existing products like air purifiers, trying to make them available to low-income families who suffer from air pollution."
While some Homefield Advantage teams focused on increasing housing opportunities, Harvey's Sustainable Sustainability group worked on making existing conditions better.
"We wanted to improve the health benefits for those who live in low-income housing," she said. "A lot of low-income housing is placed next to big power plants, which let off fumes, to go with exhaust from cars. Especially with the recent wild fires, people in low-income housing don't have access to things that will improve their health."
The process for Harvey, and her team, to get from point A to point B wasn't always easy. It was much like athletics – when the road often features many ups and downs.
"We got kicked in the butt a few weeks ago," said Harvey. "Chris Kauzmann (from the Baker Institute) drew a picture that we were here, but going around and around in circles. We weren't getting anywhere."
At that point, the student-athletes refocused and started reaching out to constituents such as landlords.
"We gathered a lot of demographics and other data and found where, and what product, was needed," said Harvey. "We also worked with a mentor, [Lehigh women's lacrosse alumnus and former student entrepreneur] Lauren Beausoleil. Lauren helped us realize how and where we needed to make strides, and where we needed to be going."
One significant attribute of student-athletes is coachability.
"As athletes, we take that coachability piece to heart," said Harvey. "Our group of athletes said to ourselves let's figure this out… we got this. We need to be ready and need to have this down before we can beat anybody else [in the final competition].
"We need to be ready to compete."
That moment of getting "kicked in the butt" could be compared to something from athletics.
"It was like when you're down 10 at the half and you have that halftime talk," said Harvey.
Harvey found the leadership and coaching of the Baker Institute's Kauzmann and Getzler, along with Athletics' Julie Ammary, Katie Guynn and Cait Gillard to be very effective. They tailored their coaching specifically to student-athletes.
"They pushed us more aggressively as athletes, which was good," said Harvey. "It was an actual coaching mindset. I really appreciated all their time, and everyone else's time, including my teammates."
Harvey took a lot away from Homefield Advantage, as did all the student-athletes.
"It was okay if we didn't have all the steps done," she said. "This was an eight-week program. It's not year-long where you could have the actual solution embedded into the system. They said to be really honest in our presentation about where we'd go next."
Admitting you don't have all the answers is a byproduct of self-awareness, much like on the playing field.
"In basketball, you have the point guard, post, wing, shooting guard and forward," said Harvey. "Everybody has their own job, but it's about finding the way we all click together. Everyone is going to make mistakes, but we've got to keep going."
The entire experience helped Harvey reshape her thinking.
"What you think is the solution vs. the needed solution aren't always the same things," she said. "You need to go to the source to see if it's needed."
Going to the source demands communication. Instead of communicating within the athletics landscape this fall, it happened in a different setting (since the fall seasons were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
"We had a team-first mindset," said Harvey. "It's about us as a team figuring it out together. We all put in a lot of effort to make it the best presentation possible. No person was ahead of the other."
Team-first mentality is an important quality that makes up a strong athletics team. It's even one of Lehigh's Five Pillars of Athletics Leadership – along with self-awareness (mentioned earlier), integrity, competitiveness and toughness.
The competition at the end of the eight weeks tied in perfectly with the pillars as well.
"As athletes, we're so competitive," said Harvey. "Even though this experience didn't provide us any class credit, we were trying to make a difference in the world and trying to help others. There was definitely an initiative and incentive to do this program."
As Harvey learned, entrepreneurs fail… a lot. It's another parallel to athletics, and part of the reason entrepreneurs and athletes are such a natural fit.
"All athletes have to deal with failure," she said. "You may turn the ball over or miss a shot, but you just have to keep going and figure it out."
That's exactly what Harvey's team did.
"I'm very thankful for this opportunity because there were definitely moments, especially during the shutdown, when there was no outlet," she said. "We all have our other classes, but that got very tiring very fast and we were able to switch it up with something like this.
"Julie said we were able to invest all of our frustrations into this program," Harvey continued. "It was a good distraction, and the fact we're trying help people was a huge plus.
"Huge thank you to all the people [with the Baker Institute and Athletics] who pushed us to improve."
Players Mentioned
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