CNUsports.com has asked senior women's lacrosse player Stephanie Green to give fans a look at life as a Division III student-athlete. Balancing school work, practice and much, much more, Green provides an inside look in her weekly blog.
UPDATE: Hey everybody! With school cancelled and the weather getting worse, I wanted to be sure to mention that I hope you are all safe during this storm. I wrote this blog before Hurricane Sandy was supposed to hit and now that it has, my thoughts and prayers are with all of those in the affected areas. Be safe!
"What does it mean to be a Captain?"
Aside from waking up early for practices and weight lifting with the strength and conditioning coach, I have been even busier lately. I have finally sent in my last Secondary Application for medical school and actually have a medical school interview coming up in November.
Just recently, however, I sent in my homecoming nomination for 2012 Homecoming Court... as if I wasn't already busy enough with classes, lacrosse, and shadowing a Speech Language Pathologist. I was so excited to fill out that nomination application, though, because it let me reflect back on some of the reasons I came to CNU and all the accomplishments that I have achieved during my time here. CNU has granted me the opportunities to be who I am today. I do not think I would be as successful as a student-athlete if I went to any other school. PERIOD.
Today I want to share with you one of the questions that was asked on the nomination application: "What does it mean to be a Captain?"
A Christopher Newport University Captain is one who embodies the notions of both “family” and “passion”. CNU is a family-oriented college. The faculty, staff, organizations and clubs make this campus one that strives to make collaborative students and a rich community. Specifically, CNU stresses outreach in the Hampton Roads, Newport News, and Yorktown areas to those in need and attempts to bring those in the community into our CNU family.
I have been a part of this family ever since I stepped foot on CNU's campus back in the fall of 2008 when I was first looking at colleges. The life on campus was energetic and welcoming; the environment was relaxing and warm; the students were friendly and approachable. I knew that once I became a student here that I would have to continue on this road of embodying “family”.
That is what I have done throughout my time here at CNU. My lacrosse team last year had a motto called “Family” and this year has one called “TWB: Together We're Better”. With these ideas in mind, we set out to make a lacrosse program which unites one another and branches out into the community with service. Being a captain definitely means understanding the family that CNU tries to achieve here. If you want an incredibly funny, talented and welcoming family, being a Captain at CNU is the place to be.
The second aspect of being a Captain is having a passion. As a liberal arts college, CNU strives to meet the demands of performing arts, athletics, and academics, knowing that individuals on this campus have a wide array of interests. Each student has a different passion and CNU is great at uniting these. Whether it is a sports team, a musical performance, Greek life, community outreach or research, students here at CNU have a thirst for whatever they are involved in.
For me personally, my passion over the past four years has been in athletics, youth development and medicine. My lacrosse team, the start of a nonprofit adaptive lacrosse program for individuals with disabilities, and the drive to attend medical school has kept me not only passionate here on campus, but also extremely busy. CNU Captains must have a passion and drive for something and must work to go full throttle toward achieving their dreams, stopping at nothing less than success.
I think I can speak on behalf of all student-athletes that being a Captain is both an honor and a privilege and we're thrilled to be able to be a part of this “passionate family”. Within each of our teams, we have our families, baseball has its family on the field, basketball has its family on the court, lacrosse has its family on the turf. However, as a whole, CNU is one giant family. We take all of our individual passions and dreams and unite them under one united team. No matter what our passion, our drive, or our interest, at the end of the day... we are all CAPTAINS.
I hope everyone is having a tremendous week! Look forward to another blog from me soon!
Steph
