Columbia College tennis player Megan Brown, a rising senior, is among twelve students chosen to represent the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in a partnership with the American Red Cross. Now in its second year, the program is designed to inspire, motivate and create a new and diverse generation of Red Cross volunteers and leaders through exemplifying the five core values of the NAIA Champions of Character program.
 
As part of its support of the Red Cross diversity initiatives, State Farm Insurance is sponsoring this partnership. The leadership program kicks off with two weeks of energetic training at Red Cross National Headquarters located in Washington, D.C. from June 9 to June 20. The 2008-2009 class will participate in a rare and unique opportunity to acquire first-hand coaching, mentoring and professional leadership training presented by senior leadership at the Red Cross, one of the nation’s largest non-profit organizations.
 
This once-in-a-lifetime experience allows NAIA student-athletes to be part of a team made up of young adults from NAIA campuses throughout the country.  Student-athletes will learn from civic and business leaders in the field how to uncover their leadership potential off the field. The participants will learn about organizing successful campus blood drives, actively participate on a leadership board, and take part in diversity and cultural competency training. For their efforts, students will receive scholarship support provided by the American Red Cross and State Farm Insurance.  

Update!
The first of three drives was a huge success!
Per the Communications Manager at the Red Cross, we collected 39 productive units. We only collected 48 productive units after a total of 2 drives in the 2nd semester of 2008 (Jan-May). We're hoping for more than double this amount at the end of the next fiscal year. This will be the first of three drives Megan is helping us with as part of the program she is involved with through the Red Cross.