PHOTO | Tara Espinoza
The Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys and Golden Suns finished third for community service among all Division II athletic programs across the United States and Canada in the fall 2022 semester.
100% of Arkansas Tech’s student athletes competed with its Division II peers in the NCAA Team Works Service Challenge this past fall and totaled 3,081 service hours in the second half of 2022.
Additionally, the student athletes made an economic impact of $87,941 on the local region through their charitable works.
Many of Arkansas Tech’s community service efforts came in the form of supporting surrounding schools, animal shelters, local youth sports and fighting food insecurity.
“Service is foundational in our athletic culture,” Tech’s Athletic Director, Abby Davis, said.
“I am very proud of our student athletes, coaches and staff who continually give back to Tech and the surrounding community. Tech athletics has consistently been at the top in Division II for service hours. I know that the Tech community is proud of our student-athletes on and off the courts and fields,” Davis said.
This marks the seventh consecutive year that Arkansas Tech has finished in the top five of the challenge, including the three years the program got first place, from 2018 to 2020 and fall 2021 into spring 2022.
Davis said This streak of high rankings in the competition reveals Arkansas Tech’s commitment to community service.
Davis also says she knows what community service shows about the coaches’ and players’ commitment to working in the local community.
“I think it shows that our department understands the importance of connections within the Tech and surrounding communities. It also shows that our coaches and student-athletes want to be role models for younger generations and positively impact their lives.”
The 10th installment of the NCAA Team Works Service Challenge began on Sept. 1 and ran through Dec. 15, 2022. This competition is scored and ranked based on criteria that include the number of service hours completed and the number of participating student athletes.
The NCAA Team Works coordinates community service efforts throughout the NCAA, and community service data is tracked by Helper Helper, a volunteer management and tracking platform. These organizations collaborated to recognize NCAA student athletes who gave back to their communities.
In total, all participating NCAA student-athletes contributed 218,594 hours of community service. According to NCAA.com, this total more than doubles last year’s total hours. Additionally, the challenge made a total national economic impact of $6.5 million.
