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| Assistant AD Ali Teopas, Director of Athletics Garnett Purnell, and Assistant AD Becky Hall with the Jostens/NADIIIAA Community Service Award. |
Watson, who leads Wittenberg’s women’s basketball team in scoring and rebounding midway through the 2011-12 season, has a renewed sense of perspective after participating in multiple community service opportunities during her collegiate career.
“Before this trip (to Lesotho in 2010) I was considering grad school and getting on the fast track to a job in industry,” said Watson, a second-team All-North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) honoree in 2011 who is majoring in chemistry. “However, after my experience in Lesotho, more service is in my immediate future. Wittenberg’s service ‘requirement’ has taught me more about the life that I want to lead than any class I have ever taken.”
That powerful statement encapsulates the Wittenberg experience and is at the root of the university’s innovative Tiger GAME Plan, which engages student-athletes through service projects, connects them with alumni mentors, and provides them with access to global educational opportunities. It is a message that came through loud and clear to the National Association of Division III Athletic Administrators (NADIIIAA), which recently honored Wittenberg’s Department of Athletics with a Jostens/NADIIIAA Community Service Award.
Jostens and the NADIIIAA will make a $1,000 contribution to Wittenberg’s general scholarship fund after the university was selected as the winner in the “Array of Projects” category. The other categories are “One-Time Project” and “On-Going Project.”
The award is validation of Wittenberg’s commitment to community service and the university’s emphasis on developing the wholeness of person. Whether it was the women’s basketball or softball team adopting local elementary school classrooms, the women’s soccer team visiting Dayton Children’s Hospital, the men’s lacrosse team organizing a run to support research to find a cure for vasculitis, or the tennis teams hosting a free clinic, Tiger student-athletes repeatedly stepped out of their comfort zone during the 2010-11 school year to make the world around them a better place.
“We are honored to have received this award, which definitely attests to our student-athlete’s compassion as they put into action Wittenberg’s motto ‘Having Light, We Pass It On To Others’,” said Ali Teopas, assistant director of athletics for the Tiger GAME Plan. “This award is a result of their hard work, time and commitment to being the definition of an NCAA Division III student-athlete.
“I commend our student-athletes and coaches for making the commitment to making a difference in the Springfield community and beyond.”
Hundreds of Wittenberg students have participated in service trips to the impoverished African kingdom of Lesotho over the last decade, just as Watson did in 2010. Closer to home, Watson and her teammates acted as mentors to students in the Springfield City School District. Both experiences gave Watson motivation to re-consider her post-graduation priorities.
Rachel Ross, class of 2014 from Westerville, Ohio, hadn’t ventured further than nearby Fairborn for a community service opportunity. That could change after she and her softball teammates gained so much from interacting with students in a first-grade class.
“Our team really built a strong relationship with the kids we got to work with, and whenever we left the classroom the kids would always ask when we were coming back,” said Ross, a pitcher who earned second-team All-NCAC honors in 2011. “It was so rewarding for all of us to see how excited they got and how much the kids wanted to work with us. Adopting the class was much more than community service to us and quickly became something our team looked forward to doing every week.”
That is music to Teopas’ ears. The Tiger GAME Plan was created to broaden the horizons of Wittenberg student-athletes, and it is clearly having an impact in just its second year of implementation.
“Some of my best memories at Wittenberg so far have been working with student-athletes during their community service projects and seeing them bring joy to someone’s day,” she said. “Our Tiger student-athletes are truly passing their light on to others.”
Written By: Ryan Maurer
