Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Athletes Receive National Honor
6/23/2005 12:00:00 AM | General
June 23, 2005
Boca Raton - As the 2004-2005 academic year came to a close, many Florida Atlantic University athletes headed into the summer with both individual and team accomplishments. Possibly the most impressive accomplishment is an award given by the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS) called the Academics and Sports Outreach and Community Service Program Honor Roll Award.
As an Athletic Department, the women's teams finished second in the Atlantic Sun All-Sports race for the third consecutive season. The men's teams ended their seasons fourth in the all-sports race. Athletic accomplishment is what brings most athletes to FAU, and academic accomplishment is how they matriculate through college. Outreach and community service is self driven and is something each athlete volunteers to do.
During the 2004-2005 academic year, FAU student-athletes tallied countless hours of community service. This was above and beyond their 15-plus hours of class time, 20 hours of athletic practice time, as well as the time spent in competition. The student-athletes continued to service the community through educational enhancement initiatives in schools, after-school programs, and non-profit organizations. Student-athletes also took the initiative to raise money for several causes, including holiday gift giving for underprivileged groups and donations/fundraising for the American Cancer Society and the Ronald McDonald House. Student-athletes raised awareness on societal issues through several activities, including, but not limited to, participation in the Rape and Incest National Network's National "Get Carded Day" event.
In addition to these initiatives, student-athletes were able to reach a wide variety of individuals in the South Florida area with inspirational and educational messages through various speaking engagements and public appearances, including representation at the Special Olympics Awards Ceremony. FAU student-athletes also volunteered countless hours to individual sport clinics and camps for a number of community organizations, such as the March of Dimes. Both the clinics and camps provided additional forums for coaches and student-athletes to train and teach members of the community sport-specific skills and positively impact the lives of many youths. All of these activities functioned as a service to the Boca Raton and greater South Florida community, serving both the university and the athletic department's needs to provide outreach initiatives to the surrounding FAU community.
The Academics and Sports Outreach and Community Service Program Honor Roll Award signifies commitment to developing leadership in student-athletes and caring for the community. It also represents a commitment for student-athletes to be role models in education.
Last year, the NCAS membership reached an all-time high of 218 institutions. The membership has collectively contributed $140 million in tuition fees for nearly 22,000 student-athletes to complete their degrees and has benefited over nine million young people, in all, through nearly 10 million hours of outreach and community service across the nation.
FAU earned the Degree of Completion Honor Roll from 1999-2001 and 2002-03. Florida Atlantic received the Outreach Honor Roll Award in 1998-99, 1999-01, 2002-03 and 2004-05.
