Keynote Speaker -- Dain Blanton

Academic Innovations is excited to welcome Olympic Gold Medalist Dain Blanton to Focus on Freshmen 2010.

For the past 13 years Dain has traveled the world representing the USA in beach volleyball. He became the first ever African American to win an AVP Beach Volleyball tournament in 1997, winning the AVP Hermosa Beach Grand Slam. Dain pushed forward and improved even further, bringing home a gold medal from the Sydney 2000 Olympics with Eric Fonoimoana. He also returned to the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, becoming the first and only male beach volleyball player to represent the United States in two Olympic Games.

Dain’s keynote address at Focus on Freshmen 2010 will leave educators in attendance with a powerful story they can recount for their students as a real-life example of how a vision, when coupled with energy and perseverance, leads to success.