Being an athlete can come with many things to put on your plate. From practices, homework, studying, games and having a social life, where does that leave even more aspects of everyday life and college life?
Oregon State University has a program that was designed to make an impact on the overall well being of student athletes. It was called the Everyday Champions program and has since been rebranded to Building Beavs.
Maureen Tremblay, assistant athletic director, said the program was rebranded in order to mirror OSU’s athletics mission statement, as they sought to use it as the theme for everything the program does.
Tremblay, who graduated in 2016 and competed for five years on the women’s cross country and track and field team, said the programming positively impacts and develops student-athletes so that they can excel during their time at OSU and can continue to even after graduation.
“They inspired me to pursue a career in college athletics, and now I get to be at my alma mater serving as an athletics administrator. To return here and get to make my own mark on the program that got me started in my career has been a very cool full circle experience,” Tremblay said.
A new four-year development strategy was set in place during this rebrand. This includes education in financial literacy and a four-part diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging program called Beaver Belonging.
There is also a professional development series which has certain aspects depending on what year you are such as the one-on-one meeting to talk about career interests for freshmen, the Beaver Nation Networking Night for sophomores, an interview program for juniors and Beaver Transition for graduating seniors.
These get student athletes thinking about their future aside from athletics early on and continue to do so while with the program, as well as roles of leadership available.
Ethan DeBorja is a student athlete in the rowing team and has been involved with the program since his sophomore year in 2021 and started as a team representative, then vice president, leading to his current role of president.
“I have only been (SAAC) president for less than a month now, but the experience has been great! I have gotten the opportunity to create a better culture for student-athletes here and have started to build a plan to incorporate that culture throughout the year,” DeBorja said.
This program also brings people together. DeBorja says that being part of the SAAC has impacted him greatly because he was never aware that as an athlete, he could impact the community and others.
Deborja mentioned that, “as a Division I athlete, things can get very serious and tense every week. At SAAC, this is a great place to relax and have fun with your peers to celebrate us as a community.”
With obvious impact on herself, Tremblay mentioned very high success rates with those involved just this year. From the 2023 graduates, about 90% were prepared with their next step after leaving college and prepared for the transition and 30% of graduates were representatives, team captains or All-American.
It is clear the program provides a voice to athletes, allows them to own their role within the community and gives them every opportunity to prosper.
“At SAAC, this is a place for all athletes to come and voice their opinions so that we can create a better space for everyone,” Deborja said.
