Today the women’s basketball team took part in the Every Voice Counts competition. Every Voice Counts is a competition to display and propose potential solutions to a political or social issue in our community. Last year, we participated and took home first place and $800 of fundraising money. We entered and picked a topic the week before spring break, which allowed for a good amount of free time to look into the issue and think of ways it could be aided.
This year we picked something close to home with the NCAA Division III bylaw that no student-athlete is to be eligible for athletic scholarships or grants. Stevens is a Division III participant in NCAA sports so all of my teammates and fellow athletes participate out of their love of the game. However, in past years there have been infractions and severe consequences for other institutions that have been caught breaking the rules.
The whole team dedicated a couple of days to compiling our research, stating our facts and creating ways to avoid the DIII infractions. We met in the library, found some floor space to throw our tri-fold board on, and start cutting and pasting the project together. Realizing that a team of eleven presenting to three judges might be overwhelming, four girls volunteered to present and ironed out what they would be saying.
Wednesday afternoon they presented, with the rest of us showing great moral support in the audience. They were amazing! There were four other teams, all with great projects. You could tell the other organizations had put in a lot of work as well. We were a little nervous as the judges counted up their scores... but we won SECOND place! It was so great to have the team put their minds to it and see the payoff in an academic competition rather than on a basketball court.
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