Now serving San Diego from the heart of Liberty Station, the group ATLAPA has launched a unique student-athlete enrichment program that offers a continued commitment to academic excellence from middle school through high school and beyond. ATLAPA is a nonprofit organization that offers a holistic approach to mentoring by focusing on the whole student-athlete through a social-emotional curriculum. ATLAPA introduces methods for dealing with emotions that life as a student-athlete brings and implements them through a “life-skills program” in which instructors assist students in setting short-term and long-term goals with an inherent notion that well-roundedness comes with growth. “There is so much emotional and social stress as an athlete,” said Ilka De Leon, founder of ATLAPA. “I don’t want to just offer student-athletes more tutoring and more modular learning. ATLAPA helps make students well-rounded from the beginning so that they have what it takes to deal with the stresses that they will experience in college and in life.”     Participants attend a semester-long series of classes targeting time management, organizational strat-egies and stress management. Positive study habits are developed through academic subjects tutoring and test-taking strategies. Enrichment mentors offer problem solving and act as liaisons between college and athlete while sharing useful insight being that each was a student-athlete and personally understands the pressures that their mentees feel. By creating a triad of communication between student-athletes, parents and teachers, ATLAPA provides support and services that address the changing needs in student-athletes’ lives, according to organizers.  “I feel really prepared because ATLAPA has helped me with practice tests, but more importantly, has helped so much with test taking strategies and stress management, and has helped me realize and believe that I can do this and that it is in my hands,” said Tyler Bassler, a high school athlete and ATLAPA participant. “My ATLAPA mentor and I have focused so much on helping me realize that I know the information that now I just have to relax and take the ACT.” Cindy Borkum, Bassler’s mother, agrees. “I am so relieved and I feel like the world has been lifted off my shoulders,” said Borkum. “ATLAPA has taken this all on, and they are on my side. They are helping Tyler be empowered and independent in this journey and I have noticed changes in his attitude. He is calm, confident, respectful and seems to know he and I are a team.” There are two ATLAPA programs that students-athletes can choose from: • A group program of no more than 10 participants, in which students can communicate openly and develop relationships with other athletes. Mentorship includes academic tutoring of subjects, stress management and a life-skills program with social and emotional management curriculum. • One-on-one sessions that can be customized to meet specific needs and where students meet mentors in a familiar environment such as home. “ATLAPA is a manifestation of all the support I felt student-athletes were lacking,” said De Leon. “I want to offer fundamental assistance for parents and students by creating a resource that prepares the athlete for college completely. With lack of education, your options are limited and with lack of support, your education experience could be unbearable.” De Leon was a student-athlete herself and has a degree in psychology. She has researched extensively to find fields that teach about athletics and cognition. There is neural biological proof that athletes experience the same neural learning that musicians do. Muscle memory is no longer seen as an empty response. Experts now believe it is a mental process that takes place. The group program for ATLAPA meets every Friday from 4 to 5 p.m. at the United States Karate Academy in the Liberty Station Promenade at 2950 Truxtun Road, Suite 200. For more information, visit www.ATLAPA.org. Sponsorship questions may be e-mailed to [email protected].