University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Host Marcy Open Third-Graders
6/4/2010 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
Seven University of Minnesota student athletes welcomed third graders from Marcy Open School Friday morning at Bierman Field Athletic Building. Student-athletes Seth Helgeson (men's hockey), Anne Schleper (women's hockey), Ashley Steenvoorden (women's swimming), Kristen Steenvoorden (women's swimming), Nikki Swenson (women's track), Nicole Tzanakis (women's track & field) and Hannah Whitehead (women's swimming) interacted with the third graders during their field trip.
The event began at 11:15 at Bierman. After a brief introduction of each student athlete, the third graders were split into two groups with the Gophers giving tours of the McNamara Academic Center, the academic computer lab and the Bierman weight room. Once the Bierman tour was done, the two groups met out on the Bierman track and signed autographs and answered various questions. The purpose of the visit was to interact with the student athletes, but to still show that academics is an important part of their lives. Following their time at Bierman, the student athletes and third graders walked to TCF Bank Stadium, where they got a tour of the Gopher football lockerroom, pressbox and the playing field.
Former Gopher track athlete, Kallie Suske, is doing her student teaching at Marcy Open School. A native of Westin, Wis., Suske ran distance on both the cross country and track teams and served as a volunteer assistant coach as well. Located close to the U of M off of Southeast 4th Ave, Marcy Open embraces the Open School philosophy by using thematic, interdisciplinary teaching and learning activities in the classroom. The southeast Minneapolis community is used as a resource and service-learning projects are integrated into the curriculum. (Information used from Marcy Open's website: http://marcy.mpls.k12.mn.us/).
The University of Minnesota athletics department has done over 170 outreach events since September 2009 and has accumulated over 7,000 hours of service within the Twin Cities community. All 25 Gopher teams and over 575 of its 700 student athletes at the U of M have volunteered through M.A.G.I.C. (Maroon and Gold Impacting the Community) this year alone.
