Hannah Hanson- Northwest University
Hanson to Represent CCC as Nominee for Leroy Walker Character Award
LA GRANDE, Ore. – Northwest University’s Hannah Hanson has been chosen to represent the Cascade Collegiate Conference as the 2016 nominee for the NAIA Dr. Leroy Walker Character Award the conference office announced.
Hanson, a junior volleyball player from Tenino Wash., began working as a member of a leadership group with Team IMPACT, a group involved in matching children with mental or physical illnesses with a local college athletic team. The children are "drafted" by a team and remain with the team from "Draft Day" through graduation.
Through this relationship, the children gain great strength, camaraderie and support and the student athletes are taught lessons about courage, resiliency and life perspective that they can’t learn in a classroom.
Hanson has also traveled to Africa on a two week mission/medical/teaching trip. There, she worked with children from sunrise to sundown to help improve their quality of life.
In spring, Hanson made a mission trip with the NU volleyball team to Nicaragua, where she took part in classes to help teach Nicaraguan children English and was a coach at a sitting volleyball camp, one of the first in the country aimed at teaching the game to disabled athletes.
The trips also allowed the team play against and establish a relationship with the Nicaraguan national volleyball team. Hanson departed May 16 for China where she spends time in the classroom and given an opportunity to teach for several weeks this summer.
The national award was created to honor Dr. Leroy Walker, a former president of the NAIA and President emeritus of the United States Olympic Committee. It recognizes a current student-athlete with at least a junior academic status who has demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, campus and community leadership embracing the five core character values of the NAIA Champions of Character initiative, athletic achievement and future ambition.
The NAIA will announce the winner on their National Awards Day which is September 15.