NIRSA gives two IU seniors national award

Seniors Mandy Madden and Erin Sparks have had their plates full at IU for the past four years. \nTake Madden for instance: she has refereed for intramural basketball and flag football, as well as indoor and outdoor soccer. At one point, she was the Fitness/Wellness Strength and Conditioning Consultant at the Student Recreational Sports Center and the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. She has been the intramural supervisor since her freshman year. She is currently an intramural head official for soccer, informal head supervisor at the HPER, an hourly office service assistant for member services at the Division of Recreational Sports and is IU's first-ever undergraduate assistant for intramural sports. \nOn top of all this, she also has found time to be a member of the IU women's club soccer team for three years. \nSparks is equally busy. She is the president of the Student Recreational Sports Association and, for the past two years, has been club sports director for Spirit of Sport. She is the co-founder of the swim club and has been vice president of it for two years. She has been a writer for Recreational Sports' Get Away magazine and is the president for the advisory council for aquatics/informal sports/equipment operations through the Division of Recreational Sports.\nSo what has all this time-consuming involvement in intramurals and recreational sports led to for these two students?\nThey are both recent recipients of this year's William N. Wasson Student Leadership and Academic Award. This award is handed out annually by the National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association to 24 undergraduate students and 12 graduate students throughout the country. According to NIRSA's Web site, the purpose of this award is to nationally recognize outstanding students who are active participants of, volunteers for and/or employed by the Department of Recreational Sports on NIRSA Institutional Member campuses. Some other qualifications for the award include maintaining a GPA of 2.75 or better and having volunteered on campus or in the community.\nBoth Madden and Sparks were thrilled to receive the award.\n"This is a big honor for me. After everything I've done the past four years, it's great to see I'm being recognized for all of it," Madden said.\nSparks said she felt honored as well.\n"It's exciting because I know this is a very prestigious award through NIRSA," Sparks said.\nBoth girls were nominated by employees at IU who were instructed to write an essay of no more than 800 words about the person they were nominating. NIRSA splits the country into regions, and four undergraduates from each region are selected for the award. \nHaving two students win from the same school is very rare. Sparks and Madden will be honored, along with IU, at the Opening General Session of the NIRSA Annual Conference & Recreational Sports Exposition to be held in April in Albuquerque, N.M.\nStacy Hall-Yannessa, director of Intramural and Club Sports, nominated Madden. \n"I knew that Mandy would be a great candidate for this award because she has experience in many areas of recreational sports, which is unusual," said Hall-Yannessa.\nKathy Bayless, director of Campus Recreational Sports and assistant dean of the HPER, has worked with and witnessed Sparks' daily involvement in her endeavors. She feels Sparks has a real dedication to "non-athletes," those who may not be as competitive or skilled. She continually provides them with proper programming, services and facilities. \n"Erin is one of those individuals who has been totally engaged and committed to serving students and finding ways to improve the quality of their experience in recreational sports," Bayless said.\n-- Contact staff writer Ryan Corazza at rcoroazza@indiana.edu.