The leadership of the IIS is experienced and stable, with both the Executive Director and Chairman of the Board having been with the IIS since its inception in 1986. The Founder, Executive Director Dan Doyle, has received numerous international accolades, including two honorary degrees, for his humanitarian work. The current chairman, Russell E. Hogg, was former CEO of MasterCard Inc. Many of our trusted senior staff members have been with the IIS for a decade or more.

The Scholar-Athlete Games Network
The World Scholar-Athlete Games is the hallmark event through which the IIS accomplishes its mission. The first Games were held in 1993 at the University of Rhode Island, and brought together high school-aged scholar-athletes and scholar-artists from 108 countries for 12 days of competition and collaboration. Since then, the Institute has administered the World Scholar-Athlete Games in 1997, 2001 and 2006, drawing approximately 2,000 young people at each event, with representation from a total of 192 countries. The most recent World Scholar-Athlete Games, held from June 24-July 2, 2006, featured speakers such as former President William Jefferson Clinton, who delivered the keynote address, and Senator George Mitchell, who delivered the Institute’s 20th anniversary address on July 1, 2006. (The Institute was founded on July 1, 1986).

There are no national teams at the World Scholar-Athlete Games. Instead, scholar-athletes and scholar-artists from different countries and continents are assigned to the same team, facilitating communication between participants and helping to dispel stereotypes. For example, a basketball team might consist of 10 players from 10 different countries; a choir might represent over 60 nationalities from six continents.

At the Games, participants compete or collaborate in individual athletic or cultural activities, and participate in Theme Days, which are the key educational component of the Games. Theme Day activities are designed to engage the participants in issues of global concern, and to help them develop and express their opinions about these issues.

The success of the World Games has led the Institute to develop Scholar-Athlete Games in regions around the world (e.g. Ireland, the Middle East, South Africa, Australia), as well as in the United States through both the United States Scholar-Athlete Games and the Rhode Island Scholar-Athlete Games. Over 14,000 young people have already participated in IIS Scholar-Athlete programs. By the year 2025, the IIS estimates that 75,000 individuals will be alumni of IIS Scholar-Athlete Games programs, representing every country in the world!

A Special Partnership
On May 24, 2006, the Institute for International Sport and the United Nations announced a formal collaboration at a press conference at the UN. The collaboration involves the Institute working directly with the United Nations, through the UN’s "Sport for Development and Peace" initiative. The collaboration will extend to all future World Scholar-Athlete Games programs.

Other IIS Programs
The Institute for International Sport pursues its mission through a variety of activities. Other programs include:

The Center For Sports Parenting (CSP): The CSP is a web-based initiative that serves as an immediate and practical means to offer guidance to parents and educators. The CSP Web site offers personalized advice from a panel of respected experts, gives users access to CSP research on issues affecting young athletes, and serves as a forum for people to speak out on relevant issues.

National Sportsmanship Day (NSD): Held annually on the first Tuesday in March, NSD was conceived to create awareness of issues related to sportsmanship in athletics and daily life, as well as to stimulate meaningful dialogue among school administrators, coaches, teachers and students. The program currently involves the participation of over 14,000 elementary, middle and high schools, as well as colleges and universities in all 50 states and in many foreign countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, India and Bermuda.

Renaissance Games: The Institute continues to advance our concept of Renaissance Education, a total education encompassing academics, athletics, the arts and ethics. At Renaissance Games events, members of a team do not specialize in one event. Rather, each student competes in an eclectic array of activities, including sporting, artistic and academic endeavors. Renaissance Games reward those who are well-rounded, and offer everyone the opportunity to be a part of a team. The IIS hosted the first intercollegiate Renaissance Games in June 2005 as the kickoff event to its year-long 20th anniversary celebration. Representatives from 20 United States colleges and universities, as well as a delegation from University of Queensland, participated in this event.

International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame: The Institute operates The International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame & Museum building, a working museum located on the URI campus. On display are various exhibits depicting sports and their influence on society, as well as a gallery of inductees into our International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame. Inductees, all of whom have been present for their induction, include the likes of Sir Roger Bannister, Bill Bradley and Joan Benoit Samuelson.

Basketball Ballet: The Institute for International Sport has developed a concept called "Basketball Ballet," which merges sport and the arts by combining basketball and dance with music and performance.

Basketball Ballet stresses four key elements:

• Basketball Ballet helps participants dramatically improve their ballhandling and footwork skills.
• Basketball Ballet provides young people the opportunity to work with creative experts from diverse fields.
• Basketball Ballet provides those who may have otherwise dropped out of competitive basketball by middle or high school with an opportunity to stay with the game in a creative and unique way.
• Basketball Ballet is great fun!

The Center for Sports Poetry: The mission of the Center for Sports Poetry is to encourage young people throughout the United States to engage their creative spirit by writing poetry, using sport as their subject matter. And in the tradition of honoring academic excellence, elementary and middle school students are selected for the Sports Poetry Honor Roll, and high school and college/university students are selected for the All-American Sports Poets award.

All winning poems are published in a monograph and distributed to honorees. All New England area honorees are invited to a special on-site ceremony at the Institute for International Sport based on the University of Rhode Island campus.

For more information about the Center for Sports Poetry, please refer to the full program description provided on this website or contact Jerry Creamer at 401-874-2550 or jcreamer@internationalsport.com.

The Center for Sports Leadership: The Institute for International Sport will soon construct its second major facility on the URI campus, the Center for Sports Leadership Building. The building will serve as the home for a number of new leadership seminars the Institute will administer. More information on this leadership program will be provided in the near future.

Hall of Fame Press: The Institute has recently launched yet another new initiative, Hall of Fame Press. Hall of Fame Press will publish 2-3 sport-themed books per year. The first HOF publication will be "Our Game: The Story of New England Basketball," by nationally known author and Providence Journal sports columnist, Bill Reynolds.

The Need For Funding
Our goal is to expand existing programs so that they may positively influence youth everywhere. We envision a network of Scholar-Athlete Games across the world, all serving young people in their respective regions, as well as a feeder system for the World Scholar-Athlete Games. We intend to incorporate National Sportsmanship Day principles at all levels of amateur sport, so that young people can reap the most value from their sporting experiences. We plan to expand our programming to include leadership training for thousands of coaches, captains and other sports participants, and to offer Renaissance education to people around the world. We intend to continue to grow the International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame into an internationally renowned venue, one that attracts visitors and scholars from around the world. Hall of Fame Press will publish important books on sport and society. All these goals are possible through the talents and initiative of our dedicated staff, but all require added resources to pursue them most effectively.

The Donor – "The (name of individual or family) Institute for International Sport."
The IIS seeks a major donor who shares our belief in the power of sport and the arts to effect positive change, and whose own philanthropic notions coincide with our mission. We will also extend to our donor the right to help the IIS further realize its vision and develop new programs that remain true to our stated mission. The IIS has an extremely successful history of collaborating with individual donors and foundations. Virtually all of the individual donors who contributed to the funding for the first World Scholar-Athlete Games in 1993 are still with us, and we have continued to administer successful programs as a result of their generosity.

"I know of no other non-profit in America whose reach, reputation and consistent level of excellence transcend its budget quite like the Institute for International Sport. Donors always tell me how much they appreciate how far their dollar goes with our organization." Russell Hogg, Chair, Institute Board of Directors, former CEO MasterCard International.