Recognizing Student Athletes for Contributions Made Off of the Playing Field

Between a full class schedule, daily practices, and frequent out of town games, college athletes often find themselves spread thin when trying to fit everything into their busy schedules. It is certainly an impressive feat when they find time to partake in other extracurricular activities and their dedication to such additional commitments is certainly emphasized when they do. Each year the Montana Campus Compact makes a point to recognize four student athletes who, despite their busy practice schedules, have admirably still found time to be of service to their communities.

Announced during the always climactic annual MSU Cats vs. UM Griz football game, the Athletes in Service Awards recognize four such athletes who have demonstrated a commitment to serving their communities and in doing so have left a legacy inspiring others to do the same. We are proud to announce the 2011 recipients of the Montana Athletes in Service Award, who have been carefully selected by the Montana Campus Compact Board of Directors:

      Montana State University

Name: Geoff Irwin
Year in School: Junior
Sport: MSU Alpine Skiing
Major: Business Finance

           

Name: Natasza Lorentz
Year in School: Junior
Sport: MSU Spirit Squad
Major: Cell Biology & Neuroscience

University of Montana

Name: Melissa Jenkins
Year in School: Senior
Sport: UM Track & Field
Major: Biology



Name: Alex Shaw
Year in School: Senior
Sport: UM Football
Major: Finance




 

Campus Corps Leader of the Week: Sean Cochrane

Introducing Sean Cochrane, Campus Corps leader at Montana Tech of the UM (M-Tech) located in beautiful Butte, MT. Sean boldly made the move to western Montana all the way from Jacksonville, Florida where he recently received his undergraduate degree at Florida State University. The early winter has been quite a shock to this southerner, but Sean surprisingly seems to be adjusting to the Montana weather with relative ease. In fact, he has even cited the cooler climate as one of the things he was most looking forward in relocating to the Northwest. Adapting to new places is something that Sean has plenty of experience with; having grown up with a father in the Navy, his family grew accustomed to moving around rather frequently and found many different places to call home.

Although Sean ended up in Butte mostly by chance, the town seems to be a perfect fit for him. Sean is by nature a history buff and has found himself lucky to be in what many would consider Montana's most historically significant city. Sean has enjoyed having the opportunity to learn about the rich history of the town that was once referred to as "The Richest Hill on Earth" due to its abundance of copper deposits that drew people from all over the country and beyond. Furthermore, with Irish in his blood Sean's favorite holiday has always been St. Patrick’s Day, and fittingly enough, Butte just so happens to be home to Montana's biggest St. Patty's Day celebration. There's the luck of the Irish for you!

In his undergraduate studies Sean majored in History and plans to further his education next year by attending Law School at the University of Virginia.  As you can probably guess from the photo above of Sean and his sister on the Dallas Cowboy's field, Sean is a big sports fan. During football season you can find him rooting for the Dallas Cowboys and in college ball for his alma mater, the Florida State Seminoles.

UM-Western Goes Green for America Recycles Day

Campus Corps members serving in Dillon, MT rallied their campus and nearby community on Tuesday November 15th to celebrate of America Recycles Day.  The team worked to inform students about the campus' recycling options and utilized many creative methods to achieve this including visiting classes and dumpster diving the room's garbage can from which participants sorted out the recyclable waste that had been wrongfully placed in the trash.  Furthermore, members stationed themselves in the highly trafficked pathways in between classes to get the word out while giving away free pins and bookmarks.

The day of events continued with the plastic and can crushing competition during which students were challenged to see who could crush the most recyclables in a set amount of time, and in doing so prepared the items to begin the recycling process.  At 6pm UM-W students, faculty, staff, as well as members of the Dillon community flocked to campus to view the screening of "Bag It": a documentary on the harmful effects that plastic bags have upon the environment.  Before beginning the film, the audience had the opportunity hear from a Patagonia representatives who demonstrated how their company reuses plastic bags to make material for their clothing (as was used to make the shirt Cheyanne is wearing in the photo above!!).

The success of the day long event serves as a tribute to the effectiveness of the campus's recent efforts both to become more sustainable and to raise the community's awareness of important environmental issues.  Just since the beginning of this school year, the campus has seen major advances in these initiatives and such can be attributed to the group of passionate and dedicated volunteers devoted to the cause!

Campus Corps member Mandy created a dress out of 500 plastic bags - the number of bags an average person uses over the course of one year. Check it out!

Campus Corps Members to Honor Veterans in Bozeman

In honor of the national Veteran's Day holiday, the newly established Student Veteran's Club on the campus of MSU will be hosting several events throughout the Bozeman community to honor the men and women that have served in our country's armed forces. MSU's campus will be hosting an all day ceremony during which volunteers will read aloud the names of more than 6,200 veterans whose lives have been lost in the wars in Afganistan and Iraq since 2001.  The event is part of a larger nationwide Remembrance Day National Roll Call in which 182 colleges from all 50 states are taking part.

Campus Corps leaders T.C. Knutson and Sean Cochrane , from MSU-GF and M-Tech respectively, will be making the trip out to Bozeman to take part in the event. The ceremony will be taking place from 9am to 5pm in the Leigh Lounge in the Strand Union Building on MSU's campus. The roll call will conclude at 4pm with a remembrance ceremony during which the audience will hear from keynote speaker U.S. Senator Jon Testor.

To learn more about the event and how you can be involved Click Here.  And for all those who plan to attend, be sure to stop by to say hello to Sean and T.C. who will be stationed at the AmeriCorps table.

Warm Coats for Winter

Much to my personal dismay, they are predicting that the state of Montana is gearing up for yet another harsh winter this year.  With cold fronts already having moved into many parts of the state, it seems that they are here to stay leaving community members scrambling to adequately prepare for what's in store.  For some Montana residents this can be quite a challenge, as the necessity of a warm winter coat is often an investment that financially unstable citizens are unable to make. In response to this pressing community need our Campus Corps programs have responded by organizing local coat drives to collect new and gently used coats to be distributed to those in need.  Specifically, Campus Corps programs at Rocky Mountain College, Fort Peck Community College, & Stone Child College have rallied their student bodies as well as their neighboring communities to improve the well being of their communities one warm coat at a time.

If you would like to learn more about these initiatives, contact Campus Corps leaders Jill Washburn (campuscorps@rocky.edu) at Rocky Mountain College, Katie Wise (kwise@fpcc.edu) at Fort Peck Community College, or Michael Yegerlehner myegerlehner@stonechild.edu at Stone Child College.  Furthermore, you can visit onewarmcoat.org to learn how to start your own coat drive!

New Kid on the Block - Carson Booth!

The newest addition to the 2011-2012 team of Campus Corps leaders, Carson Booth has already made great strides in his role as leader at Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell, MT.  Born and raised in the nearby town of Sommers, MT Carson finds himself right at home in the Flathead Valley.  He is a true Montana native in that he enjoys spending his free time engaging in activities like hiking, fishing, hunting, and working on his truck.  He also enjoys gardening and skiing in the nearby mountains come winter.

Carson attended Whitman College located in Walla Walla, Washington where he studied Political Theory & Philosophy.  He has since switched gears and plans to pursue a degree in Architecture and in the future sees himself working to promote healthy civic and community life through his practice of both architecture and landscape architecture.

While enrolled as a student at Whitman, Carson illustrated his ability to "get things done" even when approached with some pretty discouraging challenges along the way. Specifically, Carson and a fellow student   managed to successfully set up a program on campus that distributed leftover food from the dining halls to local shelters.  Although they unexpectedly encountered many legal regulations in place that inhibited progress in such efforts, their continued dedication and hard work paid off and the program was a great success, providing meals to hundreds of hungry people living in the Walla Walla Valley. It is evident that Carson has brought this same admirable work ethic and credible leadership skills to the work that he is involved in at FVCC. He has already set some ambitious goals for his program this year and brings to the table many new and creative ideas to guide him in reaching them.  Carson is committed to doing his best as a Campus Corps leader to meet his community's needs, and the Flathead Valley is so lucky to have him!

Can the Cats/Griz Food Drive: Let the Games Begin!

November 5th marks the official start date of the 12th annual "Can the Cats/Griz" food drive: an off-field competition between UM and MSU to see which campus can collect the most food donations for their local food banks.  Campuses work with their local communities to get as many people as possible to donate non-perishable food items in addition to monetary donations, which they are accepting for the first time this year.


The drive culminates with the November 19th match-up between the MSU Bobcats and the UM Grizzlies, as the winning school is announced during halftime.  Last year's competition was a close one and the Cats just managed to come out on top at 27,000 pounds of non perishable foods with both campuses collectively gathering more than 40,000 pounds of food!!  While UM has made it clear that they are hungry for a win this year, MSU promises to provide some tough competition and have ambitiously set their goal at 32,000 pounds of food! Good luck to both campuses - win or lose you will succeed in making huge strides in your community's efforts to eliminate hunger!


Contributions of non-perishable food items can be dropped off at several locations throughout the Missoula community (for the Griz - of course) as well as various sites within the Bozeman area in support of the Cats. Furthermore, both efforts are collecting monetary donations which will be converted to pounds at a rate of $1.60 equaling one pound of food. For further information, contact Campus Corps leaders Alex Black (MSU) at teamleader@montana.edu or Shanna Ungate (UM) at shanna.ungate@mso.umt.edu.