Students from all over the world attend Oberlin College for a variety of reasons, but more often than not it is more than just one specific reason that draws someone to campus.
For junior guard Eli Silverman-Lloyd, it was no different. One of eight players on the men’s basketball team from California, Silverman-Lloyd’s decision to come across the country from Culver City, California, to Oberlin was multifaceted.
“Basketball obviously was an important factor into my decision, but it goes well beyond that,” he noted. “I knew I wanted to go to a liberal arts college, and I am also a musician and loved how much music is woven into the fabric of the campus. I write, sing, and play the piano and guitar.”
A psychology major, Silverman-Lloyd has a passion for how the mind works and is in the beginning phases of an honors project where he plans to research sexual misconduct within the athlete culture. A member of the student organization, PRSM (Preventing and Responding to Sexual Misconduct), he and the other members of PRSM are taking action against this national epidemic.
The mission of PRSM is to provide education and skills necessary to create a campus free of all forms of gender-based discrimination and harassment, including sexual violence. On campus, Silverman-Lloyd and his fellow trainers have already conducted workshops with first-year students, athletes, coaches, the student union staff, and others.
“It is all over the media, we see athletes and sexual misconduct happening,” he noted. “Unfortunately, research has shown that some male athletes have certain traits that could potentially lead to a higher chance of offending. However, to say all athletes in general is being too broad as there are many factors that go into it.”
The goal of his honors project is to take a deeper look at the correlation between the characteristics athletes might have that makes them high-risk. “Ideally, we want to recognize these traits early and hopefully be able to have an intervention with someone who is more likely to offend before they actually do.”
Sexual misconduct isn’t the only psychological area of study that interests the 6-foot-4 Yeomen team captain. He spent last summer back in his home state at the prestigious Green Lab on the campus of UCLA, working alongside the Lab Chief and Oberlin College alumnus, Dr. Michael Green, PhD. Silverman-Lloyd was a tester and worked primarily with veterans with schizophrenia. He was tasked with measuring their cognition levels and brainwaves.
“It was extremely interesting and challenging at the same time,” he said. “Mainly we were trying to determine many factors that related to employment level and social skills.”
Silverman-Lloyd’s mother, Mara, is a clinical psychologist, but Eli remains uncertain if he will follow her in his career path. One thing is clear, however: he loves to learn.
“I know I want to get my PhD in the future,” he noted. “I like school enough to keep doing it, and I don’t mind doing the work that much,” he said with a smile.
For now, he will continue to enjoy his time at Oberlin as a basketball player, singer, songwriter, piano-playing, guitar-strumming, psychology major.
