University Southern California Trojans
Trojans Preach Academic Effort at Local Middle School
November 04, 2015 | Trojan Outreach
A quartet of USC student-athletes marched over to Johnnie Cochran Jr. Middle School last week to discuss the balancing act of college academics and athletics.
Lacrosse's Cassandra Collins, Track & Field's Madisen Richards and Alexandra Collatz and diver Natalie Kalibat met with Stephanie Titler's leadership class to share stories of persistence and resilience for the opportunity to don the cardinal and gold.
"What it brought for my students was what it takes to get into a school like USC, what it takes to be on an athletic team. It takes grit, effort, motivation," Ms. Titler said. "By having student-athletes from USC come in, it really demonstrated to the students, in a true way, what it takes to get through school."
The student-athletes took turns describing their paths to competing at the Division-I level, from how they were first noticed as scholarship-worthy talent to the work ethic needed to assure they would be successful in the classroom at the college level.
"They don't know everything [about getting into college], and I certainly didn't know everything either," junior Cassie Collins said. "If I had the opportunity to have people come speak to me with college experience, it would have really benefitted me."
The goal was to show how attending college is a much more realistic goal than many middle school students may think. Bringing in college students serves as a tangible aid to a powerful message of encouraging continued education for a brighter future.
For the middle school students, college became much more attainable after hearing from the Trojan undergrads.
"Having USC students come to our school encouraged me to keep going no matter what," student Christina Walker said. "When they told me about their sports, it made me want to keep going and get into things and not stop."
Collins, finding herself motivated from the mentoring opportunity, hopes the Trojans' messages stick.
"I hope one thing I said today impacted one student in the classroom, and maybe that will inspire others down the road," Collins said.
Watch a video of the day below!
