As we continue our growth towards One DU, we must always keep in mind why we are all here. In this addition of Pioneer Perspectives, I would like to highlight our student-athletes and those staff members in the Compliance and Student-Athlete Support Services department.

Honoring our student-athletes...
Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC)
SAAC made great strides this year as they expanded their repertoire from social events to community service, the Student-Athlete Awards Ceremony, and serving as the voice of the student-athletes. Perhaps their greatest accomplishment was developing a position statement regarding Study Abroad that supported the University’s mission to educate global citizens while preserving the leadership and competitiveness required of student-athletes in their commitment to athletic endeavors. We look forward to the 2007-08 academic year with leadership by:
Alyssa Hampton (wvo) President
Brooke Meyer (wbb) Vice President
Dan Clark (msk) Treasurer
Sasha Sullivan (wgy) Secretary/Historian
Dani Espinosa (wla) Website manager

NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship
The NCAA awards up to 174 postgraduate scholarships annually, 87 for men and 87 for women from all three divisions. The scholarships are awarded to student-athletes who excel academically and athletically and who are in their final year of intercollegiate athletics competition. In the 2006-07 academic year, Laura Mann, women’s soccer, was a recipient of this one-time grant of $7500, which she will use toward graduate studies.

Sun Belt Conference Sporting Behavior Award
The Sporting Behavior Award is based on outstanding leadership and achievement in the classroom, on the field of play and in the community. Alyssa Hampton, women’s volleyball, was recognized this year during Sun Belt spring meeting is Destin, Florida as the recipient of this award.

Pioneer Award
The Pioneer Award is one of the University of Denver’s most prestigious awards and the highest award given to an undergraduate. It is given annually to one faculty member, one staff, and up to 10 senior students who best exemplify the Pioneer spirit. The award recognizes the overall person; the person who epitomizes what it means to be a DU Pioneer. This includes strong academic performance, leadership, community service, involvement, character, and pride in one’s school. The nominee should also exemplify pioneering qualities, the attributes that demonstrate innovation, creativity, and a unique perspective that impacts the DU community. This year Laura Mann, women’s soccer, and Rene Reisshauer, men’s Nordic skiing, were recognized as Pioneer Award winners.


Passionate Pioneers
Upon learning of a service organization by the name of Building Tomorrow, Laura Mann and women’s soccer teammates Elise Mascitelli, Jenna Billingsley, Katie Roux, Rachel Fry and Dani Wiley, took it upon themselves to launch a chapter of Building Tomorrow on the DU campus. Their goal is for our campus chapter, which was started by athletes, to become a cause for all DU students. This organization works to raise money to build schools for vulnerable children in Uganda. BT, as an organization, empowers college students to take an ACTIVE role in solving some of today's problems... one new school at a time.

Importantly, Building Tomorrow endorses an ownership’ model for the African schools being built, providing only 75% ($35,000) of the funds required to construct a school; the community must raise the remaining 25% ($8,000) via provision of labor, resources, or small monetary donations. A new school has eight rooms, a kitchen, toilets, and a soccer field. Once construction is complete, the Ministry of Education in Uganda covers operating costs and teacher salaries.

To add perspective, for less than one year’s tuition for a single student at DU, a school that serves 350 students can be built in Uganda. If every DU undergraduate donated $3.00, we would have 70% of the funds necessary to build a school in Uganda. If every member of the graduated DU community donated a single dollar, we could build three schools in Uganda.

Kudos to these women’s soccer players for their efforts to make a difference in the world!

Citizen Athlete Initiative Program
This community service and civic engagement program was rolled out this year to encourage student-athletes to deepen their self understanding as citizens and role models for their peers, empower student-athletes to acquire skills for civic engagement and become agents of positive social change.

Evaluation/Survey processes
The student-athletes have completed the first year of our new survey and evaluation process, which includes the senior exit survey and the annual year end survey. In redesigning the surveys, we wanted to provide student-athletes with a voice regarding their experience, and focus on questions that provide us meaningful information. We hope through honest feedback from our students, we can enhance our programs and services to best meet their needs and increase our competitiveness.



Compliance and Student-Athlete Support Services Staff....
Heather Weems
Associate Athletics Director for Student Services and Compliance
Heather enters her ninth year at DU in the 2007-08 academic year. She began as an intern to the department during graduate school, and then developed the student services program before supervising internal operations and eventually taking on compliance. Her main responsibilities include ensuring student-athlete welfare and NCAA compliance. Her day-to-day responsibilities include overseeing all aspects of the University of Denver’s NCAA compliance program, including eligibility certification, interpretations, rules education, the Academic Performance Program (APR/GSR), rules violations, and monitoring. She also serves as the liaison to the admission department and works with coaches through the admission process. She is a co-advisor to the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, and allocates fifth year, summer and medical aid. She also works with various academic award programs at the National, conference and University level. Heather enjoys working with student-athletes and coaches to help them achieve their goals.

Alissa Allen
Assistant Director of Student-Athlete Support Services, Academic Services
Alissa begins her third year at Denver and serves as the student-athletes’ main contact for academic services. In addition to general advising and registration assistance, she oversees the tutoring, mid-term progress report, and study table programs, as well as working with at-risk students. Alissa is also vital to our NCAA progress toward degree reviews, as she helps the compliance office to monitor appropriate progress and certify student-athletes according to academic regulations. Most importantly, Alissa boasts a welcoming office where our student-athletes come for support, advice, and just “to chill” with a handful of candy.

Carey Benson
Assistant Director of Student-Athlete Support Services, Life Skills
Carey will join the Pioneer staff on July 16, and brings a great background in sport psychology and athletic counseling. She will work in an advising and registration role, as well as overseeing all aspects of our life skills program, including career development, educational programming, transition programming and developing a mentoring program for our student-athletes. We look forward to her energy and passion.

Denise Dumas
Compliance Coordinator
Denise has worked in compliance at DU since May 2004. She interacts with coaches on a very regular basis as she reviews the NCAA clearinghouse status of incoming student-athletes, and is integral to the NLI and athletic grant process. Denise serves as our financial aid liaison and ensures sports remain within NCAA financial aid limits. She also administers the Compliance Assistant internet program, ensuring our squad lists and other updates are captured in a timely manner. Finally, Denise provides technical support to the Office of Compliance, including assisting with rules compliance and budget needs for compliance and student services. Denise enjoys keeping us organized and working with coaches to service our student-athletes.