Boise State’s student-athletes are officially breaking records both on the field and in the classroom.
On Nov. 23, 2024, Boise State Athletics announced that the program achieved a Graduation Success Rate (GSR) of 96% amongst the four most recent graduating classes of student-athletes, breaking their previous record of 94% in 2023.
According to a press release from Bronco Athletics, this year’s GSR percentage is a program and Mountain West Conference record.
The NCAA’s GSR measures the number of student-athletes who have enrolled in a university at a certain time and the amount of student-athletes who’ve graduated within six years of their enrollment. This year’s record-breaking class is from the 2017-2018 cohort class.
Gabe Rosenvall, associate athletic director for Student-Athlete Academic Services, explained the challenges this class faced such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced student-athletes to abruptly end their season and pivot to attending classes over zoom.
“I was just thinking about that group, they were right in the middle of their college experiences, probably in their third or fourth year, right when that all hit,” Rosenvall said. “They’re trying to figure this all out on the fly and there was every reason to either quit or take a break. Those people stuck with it, and really did a tremendous job finishing.”
Rosenvall credits the university’s work towards the growing graduation rates at Boise State University.
“There’s a standard report that we have but I just throw that out as something that every student at Boise State should be proud of,” Rosenvall said. “The work that has gone into supporting every student at Boise State, I’m amazed at just knowing how big those numbers have to be and how much of a change has to happen at a university.”
According to Rosenvall, only 10 other universities have a higher annual graduation rate than Boise State Athletics such as Stanford University, Duke University and University of Notre Dame.
“This school has done an unbelievable job in the last decade of improving its graduation rate overall,” Rosenvall said. “That’s really hard to do, with the growth of our student population and all those things.”
Six women’s sports programs earn a perfect graduation success rate score
Boise State’s athletic department achieved a score of 100 across six different women’s sports programs: Basketball, golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball and volleyball.
Associate Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator Christina Van Tol credited this accomplishment to the program’s ability to form relationships with itsathletes.
“At the core of all of it, what we found is that when people stay at Boise State, they graduate,” Van Tol said. “I think what we do really well is building authentic relationships with our student athletes.”
Van Tol added that the programs and services offered at Boise State such as BroncoLife assists in taking care of the student-athletes “beyond the field”.
“We’re providing programming, helping them with resumes and doing cooking classes,” Van Tol said. “We’re doing all these things that show you can score on the court and that’s great but do you know how to take care of yourself off the field? Do you feel like you’re a part of the community? Because when people feel community, then that’s when they want to stay.”
Van Tol highlighted that this record can make a lasting impact on the community and the future of women’s athletics.
“People get curious, they want to know more and they start getting more interested in women’s athletics, they start seeing not only what they’re doing in college athletically but they’re following them as they go out into the world, either in a professional sport or as teachers, doctors, lawyers, they follow them in life,” Van Tol said.
BroncoLife for student-athletes
One of the services offered for Boise State student-athletes is BroncoLife, a program that since 2002, assists in preparing student-athletes for life after college.
Sara Whiles, associate athletic director for Student-Athlete Development and also oversees the BroncoLife program, says their initiative is to provide student-athletes with life skills and development opportunities. The program focuses on areas such as personal, professional and community development.
“The initial goal of the program was life skills to offer to our student-athletes in addition to what they learned from their coaches,” Whiles said. “Our goal is that when they graduate,they know they’re more than an athlete and they’re connected and prepared for life after sports.”
Whiles said BroncoLife meets with student-athletes one-on-one, helping them as they try to “meet their goals” during and after college. Additionally, BroncoLife also focuses on providing student-athletes the opportunity to be involved in the community through volunteer services for non-profit organizations and networking opportunities with business professionals.
“We want them to know there’s life after sports, so not that they wouldn’t play as long as they can, but that someday there’ll be a chance for them to go into a working world,” Whiles said.
Whiles reflected on the student-athletes and services offered at Boise State in light of the record milestone.
“Knowing that more kids are graduating is really encouraging because they are that much closer to goals that they’ve set for themselves and goals that we have for them too,” Whiles said. “I think it’s just a really cool accomplishment for them. We’re very proud of them and want to be mentors and helpers and get them to the next step of life after sports.”
