Shavar Bernier ’10 credits Conn for his success

From his office in admissions at The Taft School, where he is associate director of multicultural recruitment and head boys’ varsity basketball coach, Shavar Bernier ’10 shared several reasons why he feels he owes much of his success to his experiences as a Connecticut College student-athlete.

A two-year team captain for the men’s basketball team, Bernier was the consummate student-athlete leader. While his teams were not as successful as he would’ve liked, he was recognized by NESCAC coaches in his senior year as an All-NESCAC Second Team selection as a guard. He averaged 19.1 points per game, which was good for fourth in the conference in scoring. He also led NESCAC in assists and was second in free throw percentage, an impressive 94 percent clip.

During his sophomore year in 2007-2008, the Camels won 17 games and advanced to their first of two consecutive NESCAC tournaments.

“I really loved my teammates,” said Bernier, who maintains close relationships with several of them.

At The Taft School, he follows the basketball philosophy of, “the triple threat.” In basketball, you are taught to be ready to shoot, drive, or pass every time you get a touch. Now, he’s expected to be a different sort of triple threat: admissions, dorm work, and extracurricular activities.

Bernier said he is very busy and loves working with young people in a variety of different spaces on campus. He especially enjoys assisting with Taft’s SHADES program, which “provides a safe space as well as a space to create and think about ways in which we can make paths more accepting and the experience for folks of color a little bit more seamless,” he said.

The group shares Instagram posts from the @BlackatTaft handle, an account which has seen positive results and received national attention.