On Thursday, April 19th Anthony Portela (Men’s Swimming), J’son Stamper (Men’s Basketball), and Mike Torchia (Men’s Track and Cross Country) spoke to local students about the importance of staying tobacco free. As part of the Life Skills “Tobacco Free” Program, these athletes visited sixth graders at Valleyview Middle School to help educate young children about the dangers of nicotine and tobacco use.

On Tuesday, April 17th J’son Stamper (Men’s Basketball), Evan Kaufmann (Men’s Hockey), and Sarah Graham (Rowing) combined their efforts to battle tobacco use among today’s youth by serving as advocates of a tobacco free lifestyle. They spent the afternoon speaking to fourth and fifth graders at South Grove Elementary School about the dangers of nicotine and tobacco use.

On Monday, April 16th J’son Stamper (Men’s Basketball), Cheryl Wick (Rowing), and Mikey Kantar (Men’s Tennis) teamed up to combat tobacco use by speaking to local students about the benefits of remaining tobacco free. As part of the Life Skills “Tobacco Free” Program, these athletes visited Pine Bend Elementary School to help educate young children about the dangers of nicotine and tobacco use.

On Friday, April 20th Gabrielle Anderson (Women’s Track and Cross Country), Jenny Green (Soccer), Allison Kempainen (Soccer), Kadian Douglas (Women’s Track), Dee Jackson (Volleyball), and Cheryl Wick (Rowing) spoke to local students about the importance of staying tobacco free. As part of the Life Skills “Tobacco Free” Program, these athletes visited Cottage Grove Elementary School to help educate young children in the dangers of nicotine and tobacco use.

On Friday, April 13th Evan Kaufmann (Men’s Hockey), Bobbi Ross (Women’s Hockey), Cheryl Wick (Rowing), Heather Horton (Women’s Track/Cross Country), Shannon Stemper (Softball), and Mandy Valadez (Softball) teamed up to help local youths understand the importance of reading. These University of Minnesota athletes spent the morning reading to first graders at Indian Mounds Elementary School in an effort to help improve literacy and reading habits of local school children.

Congratulations to our student-athletes for a very successful spring semester 2007! 16 of our 25 sports earned a GPA of 3.0 or higher and the overall departmental GPA is 3.04. All of our women's sports have earned a semester GPA over a 3.0 with the women's cross country team leading all sports with an impressive 3.73 team GPA. We are proud of the accomplishments of our student-athletes in the classroom as well as on the field of play. To learn more about our student-athlete academic success please read the Spring 2007 Newsletter.

Seijen Takamura (Men’s Track and Cross Country), Gabriele Anderson (Women’s Track and Cross Country), Eric Decker (Football), and Katie Simpson (Rowing) visited St. John the Baptist Elementary school in Savage, Minnesota on February 16th, 2007. The visit was part of our reading campaign and in celebration of “I Love to Read” month.

J’son Stamper (Men’s Basketball) and Sydney Liles (Women’s Golf) visited with 4th and 5th graders at the Education Fair on Wednesday, March 21st. The education fair was hosted on the University of Minnesota campus to inspire children to pursue higher education. Other offices on campus that were involved in the fair included: The College of Biological Sciences, the Institute of Technology, College of Liberal Arts, and the Office of the Registrar. Other organizations, like the Minneapolis Park Board and the YMCA, were also involved in this event.

Ryan Turry (Football), Blake Haudan (Football), Jason Gianni (Football), Rachelle Hagerty (Volleyball), Michele Wilber (Volleyball), Christine Tan (Volleyball), and Liz Tusler (Women’s Tennis) spent time with children from HopeKids at Chuck-E-Cheese on Thursday, February 22nd, 2007. This event was part of our on-going partnership with the HopeKids organization.