Champions in the Community

Pep rally to promote Booking with the Pack

On October 15th, 2008, 5 of NCSU's student athletes spoke to a packed auditorium at Holly Ridge Middle School in North Carolina. Their purpose was to promote the "Booking with the Pack" program. The project’s goal is to promote literacy throughout the Triangle. The community outreach project currently includes 11 Wake County middle schools and three non-profit groups. However, the student-athletes' message was far broader than just encouraging participation in the program. They emphasized the importance of academics and highlighted the link between hard work in school now and future successes.

The audience was able to ask questions of the student-athletes including Andrew Ciencin and Robert Chamra of the NCSU Baseball Team, Darrius Little of the Wrestling team and Tony Baker and Jeraill McCuller of the Football Team. These questions ranged from "Do student athletes get special treatment?" to "What happens if you miss an exam because you have a game?" Overall, the students of Holly Ridge showed great interest and excitement towards the student-athletes and the "Booking with the Pack" literacy project. They are all looking forward to attending the Dec. 7th Women's Basketball Game as a reward for their successful completion of the program.

Below are quotes from several of the Holly Ridge students who wrote thank-you letters.

“Dear Andrew, Thank you so much for coming to our school. I am grateful for you coming and speaking to us about academics. I think it is really cool that you and other student athletes took time out of your day to speak to us. I think it will really help me. I learned that academics area very important in life. I learned that you should be proud of every assignment you turn in. I also learned that I need to start to turn my grades around right now or I will not get into a good college...”
-Coleman Castillo

“Dear Robert, “….I also learned that staying active in sports is very important. If you stay healthy, you will be able to participate in a lot more things. You will also have a better change of getting an athletic scholarship. I can use what you said to try my best to keep my grades up. I will also stay involved with sports. And hopefully I will get an academic or an athletic scholarship one day.”
-Samantha Sedivy

“Dear Tony Baker, Thanks for coming to speak to us. You and the other athletes taught me a lot. You taught me that academics will always come before sports [and] to keep another career in mind because only 2% go professional. Thanks to you, I will continue to keep up my grades even if I get a scholarship because playing sports is a privilege. Good luck in school, Go Pack!
-Cassidy Edwards

“Dear Darrius Little…I learned a lot about college sports. I learned that about 2% of college sports players make it to the pro’s. I realized how important it is to balance education with sports. If you don’t make it to [the] professionals, you need to be able to fall back on your education.”
-Cassidy Proulx

“Dear Jeraill McCuller, …Thank you for telling us what grade[s] you need to practice during the week and play in the fames… I appreciate that you guys came. Now I know that I need to be a football player in college. I would use this information in the future.”
-Roelvis

“Dear NCSU, “… I could use the advice you gave us in a lot of ways. It will help me become more serious in school. This is important I know now because I can get more offers for college. It also gave me the advice to start thinking about my future. I need this advice so I can start thinking about what job I want and what college I want to go to. Thank you so much for coming to out school and spending your time teaching us.”
-Madison Rackley

Photos from the event