Yo how’s everybody doing today hope you’re doing well but let’s get into this video thank you for your time for clicking in on this um for those who can’t recognize the voice my name is Evan gray you can find me up in the academic center my door is right next to
The printer always my door is always open probably have a question for the day please come in and answer but enough of the distraction um let’s get into the video so part of a little bit of my role is I’m the assistant athletic director of St athlete wellness and academic
Sport services so on top of helping athletes with um advising them I also help educate on life skills you know um it is my job to make sure you all have understanding on certain life skills such as um financial literacy Dei and for this for this topic today it is
Civic engagement now I have walked in and asked multiple athletes that in the academic center what do you think Civic engagement is and a lot lot of them had no idea what the real definition was so big part of this presentation understand the importance of cing Engagement why
It’s being talked about and why November 7th is such an important date so without further Ado let’s get into this presentation so like I said the definition of civic engagement itself is basically in a nutshell it’s events or ways to provide Val value and the quality of life for the community around
You in short you’re making a difference in the your community as student athletes you have such a big impact on kids organizations or just anything or any type of company around this area people want to hear from you you have the power to make change collectively as a population so
It’s important to get out there and make a difference in your community some examples of that could be to reading to kids in Oyster River voting is probably the most important one making sure your voice is being heard or your opinions are being heard um volunteering at a
Soup kitchen helping the homeless um maybe doing like something with Habitat for Humanity and help building a house somewhere or um even giving blood even though it’s not for everybody but those are examples of Civic engagement political involvement is probably the most straightforward example of it you
Vote c um write letters and help your representatives commit change research look up things that interest you and form opinions that kind of help you understand things better um Association involvement find organizations on this campus there’s so many resources at your disposal especially as athletes and
People want to work with you that’s the beautiful thing too um whether that be the black student union um sack um any organization like that work with individuals and peers like your own visual one athletes and try to have some real change around this community direct
Ser like I said direct service can even go into um uh giving blood the bone marrow Drive um just examples like that so in a nutshell that is what Civic engagement is so now you’re probably wondering why this is so important November 7 is what is Civic engagement is so Civic
Engagement day is the the first legislation that division one sack committee has presented and before I get even into more of that why is it important you should know what sack even is the student athlete advisory committee which stands for sack is a very important because every institution has a sack representatives
From every team in sack sack is important because it basically gives athletes a voice and this in the athletic department we want to hear from each athletic department or each team and understand what needs to be changed what’s going on so it’s important to be a part of that if you
Have any more questions or concerns or or even want to get to know more about sack please um reach out to me my office is always open but just to give more um into what sack is every institution has a sack representative from each team every conference so example the America
East conference has a sack with representation from every University in the conference so um Bryant um NJIT Maine there there’s a there’s a sack program in each of those institutions so now sack of the division one level so this this division one conference has representation from every conference so
That could be power five America East um Midwest stuff like that so those conferences all have sack and have a say so what makes this important important is because the vision one sack proposed legislation that would give student athletes a required day off each year for civic engagement and voting
Activities this proposed legislation was the first time sack which is again is your fellow student athletes propose legislation since given the ability to do so in 2014 so this act of legislation is basically the first kind of piece that was established to give athletes a voice and uh have your opinions heard so
That’s why it’s such an important kind of um legislation it’s slowly but surely just giving athletes more of a voice um especially in the world we live in now people want to hear from you more and more you guys have platforms especially now with nil um and and other stuff like
That people want to hear from you you have the power to um spark change throughout all of your communities on a either it be a campus um wide ba um situation or a national level that is the beautiful part of being a division one athlete in my
Opinion so get kind of the constructs of what Civic engagement is Civic action the participation activities such as volunteer work or service learning to help better the community um a good example of that is reading the kids to Oyster River your V your voting doing volunteer work a canned food drive some
Type of group activity to better the community whether that could be helping local businesses around the area or like I said just kind of stuff that’s already in place at for some of the sports teams it’s a good way just to kind of help everybody around the Durham community
And make this a better place Civic skills uh I I believe this is a really important one of construct of this the ability to be involved in Civil Society politics and democracy it’s important to educate yourself on what is important to you what really matters being able to apply political and Civic
Knowledge to systemically analyze Civic related issues and scenarios so if you have have an opinion on something that you think is going wrong in this country or campus educate yourself on the topic and try to find ways to spark change or at least have com a a conversation about
What’s why something is and why you could try to prevent it so that involves having personal communication skills active listening don’t just listen to one thing and it go out the other ear take the time to actually educate yourself on matters that are going on on this campus like I and another lastly
Critical thinking think of ways and have Solutions to have something change and lastly have empathy empathy is really important try to understand other people with your opinion and others who might have a different opinion Have and Have difficult conversations with one another find some type of maybe even common
Ground and work on change don’t just shut down an opinion just because you think it’s wrong hear it out and I think that’s the main reason of Civic a good component of Civic skills lastly cic commitment um this one’s pretty straightforward willingness to be a contributing member of society
Basically so if you commit to doing um blood um giving blood sit down get it done um working at a soup kitchen for maybe a certain amount of time if you volunteer to work for a week commit to that week um and do it with a smile you
Know um know that you’re making someone’s day working at a place like that um working helping out the homeless um donating clothes um when when you make commitments like that um it really goes a long way um I one commitment that I did for Habitat F manity in high
School was um I helped build a house in South Carolina and I was there for a week so commitment like that is really important and um like I said as athletes athlete or businesses any type of um kind of organization around especially kids look up to you that’s why make you
Guys having a voice and making change and giving back to this community is so important and lastly social cohesion the strength of relationships in the sense of solidarity among members of community so this one’s just kind of important because you can even think of as a team
Like you guys as a team your own sports teams you could find ways to spark change whether you help with the black lives matter movement um lgbtq Community um rights stuff like that um have have some type of team of um come up with ways to spark change um I think that’s
The most important thing of this um you people want to hear from as a whole so if you guys come together and um bring up issues that you have as a population that’s the best way to spark change honestly so you’ve heard enough talking for me
For a little bit another part of this video um like I said I went around the Fieldhouse um asked anybody I could to kind of give me what their take on Civic engagement is and why is it important so the next part of this video um you’re
Going to listen to um coaches players and even administrators on what Civic engagement means to them how it’s changed over the years and why is it so important for student athletes to get involved with it so talk to you again a little bit soon so the history teacher
And um social studies teacher me wants to remind everybody Civics means basic basically your duties as citizenship right and as Citizens we all have some obligations and whether they’re to each other whether it’s to our country as a whole um I hope every one of you is
Registered to vote uh for me Civic engagement means being actively involved in things that make my community better and sometimes that’s community service sometimes that’s serving on a board or a committee um you know I lucky I was a child of the 80s so I’ve been able to go
To Washington and do some protest marches I’ve been able to um participate in some big events that were to bring attention on a national scale but also on a more local one so whether you serve on your library board whether you do community service like help with a food
Drive all of that is giving back to your um Community which is what citizenship is about and I hope as Citizens regardless of what country you’re in you make make sure you exercise your voice and that you all understand it’s our duty to take care of each other and whether that’s through
Passing just laws whether that’s through electing officials that we know are going to act on our best behalf or whether that’s helping people get to the polls so that they can vote whatever that looks like um I hope all of you guys are participating in that Civic
Engagement to me is a really broad term and I think a lot of people only think about voting with Civic engagement but to me it includes all sorts of different volunteer work um anything where you are helping other people um like with your own time not getting paid for it at all
But just going out into the community and kind of giving back with the resources that you have um on your person I think it’s really cool that this is the first legislation that sack has helped pass and I think it has really opened the doors um for sack to
Be involved in a lot more NCAA legislation and that’s anything from like nil um to talk talking about whether or not we should split into two different divisions of division one um and so I think it’s really cool that the NCAA is trusting student athletes and I
Think it’s really awesome that as a student athlete I’m able to have a voice uh and give back um and kind of help shape uh what’s really affecting me Civic engagement I’ve done in the past is last year I voted for the first time which is really important because it was
On issues of reproductive Health in my home state where I live so it was important to give my voice to have a change and effect for those policies so the best example of um you know Civic involvement really is uh John daro and Cameron Lyle uh John was a
Football player who donated bone marrow in our in in the football bone marrow drive and then Cameron Lyall uh he gave up his entire spring senior season as a thrower uh to go out and um donate bone marrow I mean that that’s the highest level but it can be anything from
Picking up garbage going to the Goodwill uh going to homeless shelters going to food pantries uh getting involved weekly monthly or yearly uh the one thing about it is you know people ask all the time has Civic involvement dropped actually I think it’s gotten more enhanced I think
It’s gotten more enhanced because I think people care a lot more I think the education such as this is very very important and for us to go forward as a society uh it’s very very important to engage in the Civic part of it well I
Think that uh for me I’ve seen it change pretty significantly over the years that I’ve been coaching uh which is a lot um and just I think these uh student athletes students in general are so much involved in um what’s going on uh in their world politically um issues with
Climate change issues with all kinds of very important topics um I think now kids are more tuned to it they’re reading about it they’re having opinions about it they’re listening to to different people talk about the different areas and so I just think it’s awesome they’re so engaged now uh some
Forms of Civic engagement that I’ve participated in was uh voting and uh I think you know it’s really important to vote just cuz you know it’s a way of you like uh being able to put someone in office that represents what you believe and like you know your values and you
Know it’s also really important just to to do it and then another one I did was uh wheals on Wheels um you know there’s a lot of people out there with food insecurities and you know they need help and you know I think a lot of us are
Lucky enough to be able to have like a good meal three times a day and you know some people aren’t and they need help so got to help them out so Civic engagement to me is using your platform as a student athlete um to give back to your local community whether it
Be at home or in Durham the local area um you know I’ve done stuff with with uh high school athletes and middle school athletes back home in Georgia with me being a camp counselor also done stuff up here like be the match um and I’ve also read with my team at Oyster River
Middle School and Elementary School um I think it’s really important um for us as student athletes um to push um on our platform to help out and and be good Role Models role models to society some examples of Civic engagement that I’ve done is U working at a soup kitchen I’ve
Done that the last six years of my life and the commitment of that is like very uh tough so we see people coming in out coming through shelter shelter houses and shelter homes and we uh we we feed them food on things giving and stuff
Like that just like at a time of me and like me having my family everything uh that was like a really huge change and I continue to do it every year ever since the first year I’ve done it just to help those people out and give those people a meal and
Just help those people uh feel good about their yourself and talk to them and have conversation what Civic engagement me means to me is um just really helping out with the community uh being involved and and making sure that the whole um Fieldhouse and all the um Athletics get
Get get engaged especially with durm and all the uh surrounding towns um what we do as a team here uh we’ve done um we read to Oyster River medal school um we read the kids uh it’s a great time uh we have a blast with it um the kids love it
Um we also do the bone marrow Drive which uh ultimately it helps someone who has a uh bone marrow disease and and uh if they need a transplant and if someone uh matches it it could save a life um and lastly too I think nober 7th we have
A uh Hoops for Hunger coming up um if if you’re free on that day come uh check it out thanks Civic engagement is important to me because part of being like part of Civic engagement is being a good Patron and kind of giving back and voting for
Your future and so I would say that Civic engagement for me is most prominent when we talk about voting So Vain voting in local legislations National legislations um you are the voice of the future and you don’t have really room to complain if you’re not voting for your future um and I would
Say that also plays a really big part of my life right now through sack um whether that’s through um our small sack here at UNH or our America EAC or even the NCAA Sac um at all levels we’re voting on legislation to get passed and that legislation starts with our voices
Um and it gets passed because of our voices Civic engagement is something that everyone should um participate in for for example for myself I voted last year I think the purest form of Civic engagement is getting out and voting it’s the only way to uh cultivate pure change in this Society Civic engagement
Is important to me as a student athlete because it gives me a way to give back to the community and give back to the kids that are growing up in this day and age um some ways that me as a student athlete and my teammates have given to
The community is by reading to kindergarteners we’ve donated cans for the food frenzy through the America East and just using our voices as um the people who are in the programs now to make a change for the ones that are coming below us as members of a community it’s our responsibility to be
Engaged to help make the community better and sustainable Civic engagement could include things like voting but it could also be speaking up it could be joining Town meetings it can be engaging and community service projects all with the idea though of making the community better plus I always feel feel that if I
Don’t engage if I don’t vote if I don’t express my opinion then I can’t complain it about it later so thanks for your engagement thanks for thinking about it and go cats all right back into the presentation I’m glad you got to hear from other people other than me talk
About Civic engagement um we’re about wrapping up the end of this presentation but um lastly one thing I really want to address is just kind of the importance of this some of you might be asking why is really us talking about this important and I just want to take the
Time to say your generation especially with Millennials and gen Z singlehandedly changed the social political landscape um this generation has changed how things work how information is um spread through the nation um just with social media alone or platforms you help influenced the last presidential election um I remember
All that stuff um happened and you just see so many videos whether it be Trump or Biden and you could get it through Tik Tok Twitter um Instagram so many information output um links are shared through social media and I think our our generation is the mo has like influenced
That to a te so this gives you the ability to share messages and talk with your peers to have in in intellectual conversations and understand your values and other people around you in a way no generation has had before and that’s the most important thing that’s why you have to
Um really take advantage of the opportunities around you and make sure your voice is heard especially when it comes to voting or anything political or social on this campus something like that should be really celebrated and the point of this legislation is for you to take advantage
Of all the opportunities that you um have whether it being in this community your home your home state or anything like that now lastly just to bring up some Civic engagement opportunities around you Hoops for Hunger which is actually on the Civic engagement day which is November 7th is a sack event uh
Here where we collect non-p perishable items to donate to those in need around the area it is um a three Onre basketball tournament and it’s very important um just because you have that Competitive Edge as athletes I know some people probably can’t join because of their sport but
It’s a real fun event I highly recommend you take a chance and go by and attend or at least just watch and spectate it’s going to be a lot of fun and we’re really taking the time to help those in need other than that this is coming up
Um next year but bench out the stigma although it’s kind of not Civic engagement we’re coming together as a group of athletes as teams and we’re bringing up the matter of mental health which is something athletes struggle with all the time with your busy schedule and other stuff like that um
Alternative break look this um up um it’s a really cool event Every Spring Break um a group of um un8 students go somewhere in this country and help build a house I think that’s the most important thing um it’s a real cool event I know some people can’t depending
On the sport can’t do it but you get to help make a change with um whether it be athletes um people in fraternities to sororities or just any UNH um student um other than that c cuper is another type of non perishable um organization that um uh it’s canned food drive basically
Which is really cool um the Red Cross they have a bunch of blood drive Don um donations throughout the month of December there’s three different ones I believe if you’re interested in giving blood look up that and then lastly um if you Google UNH serve the first thing
You’ll see is a bunch of volunteer options that are all throughout the durm community um that is the most important thing I didn’t even some just looking at there’s some things that I even didn’t know so if you really want to spark some change and help those in need that is a
Real good resource to have um it’ll be a great opportunity especially in your free time and if you really want to brighten someone’s day really should look into doing something like that besides that that’s the last um um of I want to say about it um like I said
Really take Civic engagement seriously go out there and really impact others um real good opportunity and it’s really really truly a blessing to have that power honestly guys but all right you heard enough from me God bless you have a great rest of the day and go catch
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