Perlino Graduates from SUNY SAIL Institute

Alfred State junior thrower Dylan Perlino (Holland) recently graduated from the 2020 SUNY SAIL Institute Student Leadership Academy. Perlino along with Deborah Oliveira represented Alfred State in the training. 

The academy included students from all across the SUNY system and took place online throughout the fall semester. Highlights of the academy included a seminar series, a leader speaker series, mentoring, a social media campaign, and alumni and cohort connection opportunities. 

Perlino was nominated for the program by head track & field coach Tim Giagios.

We had the chance to connect with Perlino to get some of his thoughts about the program: 

Describe what the SAIL Academy was? Every few weeks or so we would gather in a meeting and usually there would be some keynote speaker who would usually give us their story and some tips that helped them get to where they are either professionally or personally. Some speakers included Jenna Wolfe of NBC Sports and even SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras. 

What attracted you to want to be part of the SAIL Academy? Originally when Coach Giagios told me I was nominated my only thought was, "Man, that would look good on a resume." So that was what initially drew me towards the academy, just making myself look better to employers.

What are some of the things you learned? The main takeaway for me was the day we talked about diversity and working with people with different backgrounds. I grew up in a very culturally uniform town as a child, so I was never exposed to people with different backgrounds or experiences. Unknowingly, this created a very "tunnel vision" aspect of my decision-making process, especially when working in a group, because I simply thought everyone thought similarly to me. Once I got to college and met more people with different backgrounds and vastly different world views, it really opened my eyes to not only the importance of input from every group member, but also the importance of culturally diverse groups to allow for the maximum number of possible decisions.

Were there things you learned that can help you in your leadership role with the track & field team? Kind of like I said before, including diverse groups in important decisions will be one of my keystones moving forward. In addition, knowing when to take step back and let other people voice their opinions or concerns is definitely something I learned that I will apply in the future.

Would you suggest other student-athletes to be part of future opportunities with SAIL? Absolutely! I didn't realize how much I was going to learn from this program until I heard some of these speakers talk and tell their stories. Seeing people attain such success, and some with very adverse beginnings nonetheless, was truly inspiring.  I cannot recommend this program highly enough and I cannot thank Coach Giagios for nominating me.  Truly an honor I never thought I'd be chosen for.

For more information about the SUNY SAIL Leadership Program visit: https://sunysail.org/about-sail/student-leadership/

For the complete Alfred State release about Perlino and Oliveira visit: https://www.alfredstate.edu/news/2020-12-10/two-students-graduate-suny-sail-student-leadership-academy