Jacob Van Roekel Email and Phone Number

Oversight of academic success for all sports programs at JMU. Lead strategic planning efforts to establish academic service objectives, evaluate and implement best practices for academic advisors, and identify, propose and implement operational policies and procedures for the Student-Athlete Services department. Supervise seven full time academic advisors assigned to various sports programs. Lead the academic mentoring program for all sports programs to increase academic success. Develop and implement summer academic programming for football to meet NCAA requirements, including academic workshops, panel discussions, and guest speakers. Oversee and monitor the academic progress of all student-athletes to ensure NCAA eligibility benchmarks are met. Oversee the submission of all academic awards for JMU to the NCAA, SBC, MAC, AAC, and other related organizations. Lead academic advisor for the Football and Swim and Dive team at JMU.

I Oversee all academic advising for James Madison University’s football program. In this role, I serve as the direct supervisor for 2 academic advisors and together we monitor degree progress, NCAA eligibility, and all other academic requirements for the student-athletes on JMU’s football team. We communicate regularly with the coaching staff and administration to address any issues or concerns that arise. We develop plans to help struggling student-athletes find success at the collegiate level and earn a degree in their desired field. I am also the academic advisor for the Women’s Swimming and Diving team and JMU and have the same responsibilities with them.

In this role, I work with JMU's student-athlete leadership program, Dukes LEAD. The program is designed to intentionally focus on positive initiatives outside of athletics and academics to prepare our student-athletes for life after college. We help to implement professional, personal, and leadership development programs and activities for JMU athletes. As Director of Dukes LEAD, I have helped to build a Professional Toolkit that will prepare student-athletes to be successful candidates for their future careers. I am also designing a Dukes Leadership Academy that will help a selected group of student-athletes explore and develop several leadership skills that they can implement with their teams, in the classroom, and in their future careers. I also have the opportunity to help plan Professional Development events for all JMU Athletics staff members.

I work as an academic advisor for Student-Athlete Services at James Madison University. I currently work with the football team and previously worked with the men's basketball and women’s tennis team. In this role, I assist the student-athletes of these teams with all their academic needs. This includes helping them register for class, organize tutors, and schedule their mandatory study hall. I am also responsible for tracking their credits, GPA, and degree progress to ensure NCAA eligibility. The goal is to help all of the student-athletes manage the strenuous schedule of being a Division I athlete and a full-time student and to keep them on track to graduate from James Madison University.

I currently am in charge of running the boys and girls swim programs at Salem High School. This include writing practices, working with my swimmers on the technique of all strokes, and building strength and endurance. I also create meet lineups that I believe will put the team in the best position to win dual meets and invitationals. Finally, I make sure that all of my students meet eligibility requirements by taking and passing enough classes, and maintaining an appropriate GPA to participate in sports at the high school level.

Developed and implemented a curriculum that met both International Baccalaureate standards and the Virginia Standards of Learning for a biology course. This included planning lectures, designing and overseeing a variety of labs that were primarily inquiry-based labs, and implementing a variety of assessments. Both formative and summative assessments were used, including exit tickets, class work, homework, quizzes, tests, and projects to determine how well the students knew the material they were expected to learn. The ultimate goal was to teach an understanding of the topic, not just to teach the answers to the tests they were give.