Columbia College Athletics - Founded the athletics program at Columbia College Chicago.

In the fall of 2005 I was a sophomore at Columbia College Chicago. I became the president of the baseball team. The baseball team was the only team on campus at the time and was not really known by any of Columbia’s students other than the ones that actually played on the team. I worked hard to make the campus aware of this team and more importantly build the team structurally so that the approach toward running the baseball team could be turned into a template for other students interested in starting a different club sport on Columbia’s campus.

The next year, fall 2006, I had a few other people interested in starting a full-fledged athletics organization on campus to help students start and run club/intramural sports. Within the first year of existence we were able start a handful of other teams, including a very sought after soccer team, and unite all teams under the same team name and colors. The team name and colors were voted on by other students in a ‘town-hall’ style meeting. We were to be known as The Columbia Renegades and united under the crimson red, steel-blue colors.

The second year, my senior year, our organization was promoted to an umbrella organization that oversaw all teams on campus and even assigned budgets to each of them. That year we had many students involved in building the athletics organization and we were able to start around 18 club teams and an additional 14 more teams when you include intramurals. We also established the annual Fall/Spring Field Day event which brings Columbia students together for a day of fun activities in Grant Park. Also, we assembled a team to train and run a marathon in Rome! We had a unique approach toward marketing athletics at a college of the arts. We called it ‘Sports with an artistic twist’. Here was the website for the organziation that I created and maintained while I was there: Former Columbia Renegades website. I am proud to say that we received the Most Outstanding Organization on Campus that year.

While I’ve had to move on with my professional career since graduating I hold this venture close to my heart as it is brought to light my true passion for building community! I’ll always be proud of this legacy and I’ll always do my best to keep in touch with the people that I worked with in making this venture a success! In general my goal is to put myself in a position where I’m free to pursue my ventures at will. Once this is possible I would like to return to this venture and help in every way possible!