Programming

  • At the Madison public library, every Wednesday morning, student-athletes read to and sing with young children.  This program is not only enjoyable for the children, but the student-athletes find the experience rewarding.  Each week more and more children and parents come experience the fun with our extroverted students.  Additionally, Morris County Office of Temporary Assistance Volunteer & Donor Program offers an adopt-a-family program for the holidays.  Over 300 families in the local area cannot provide gifts for their own families.  This year the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee is adopting a family.  We are excited to sponsor a family in need by spreading holiday cheer and making their holiday enjoyable for their entire family.   
  •  Furthermore, one of our semi-annual projects is a sports clinic for The Children’s Institute in Livingston, NJ.  The school is for children with learning disabilities.  Our student-athletes love creating a warm and friendly environment for these children to participate with athletics.  We teach the children how to play certain sports, such as volleyball, baseball, soccer, how to catch a football, as well as participate in relay races.  This program is not just about the children learning how to play sports; however, it is also a learning experience for our student-athletes.  We learn how to be patient and how to reach out to children with specific needs.  It teaches us to be leaders and how to coach individuals who do not have the opportunity to participate in these activities.
  • As student-athletes we like to promote and encourage all of the athletic teams to interact with other students on campus at big events. Every year the SAAC hosts two big events, one in the fall and one in the spring to bring everyone together. In the fall, our group runs the event “Halloween Havoc” where all students are welcome to participate in small game competitions for great prizes. Halloween Havoc takes the initiative to truly promote school spirit as we introduce all of the fall sports teams, and also the winter teams that are just beginning their season. Similarly, the event that is run in the spring is called the SAAC Olympics where student-athletes have the chance to play small game competitions and afterwards we have a barbeque for everyone that attended. The members of SAAC also like to recognize those athletes that are having stellar performances in their respective sport. Every month we have the Coach’s nominate and vote for a player (1 male, 1 female) who has stood out in their sport and has achieved excellence. Those athletes get their picture put up in the gymnasium, so they can be recognized and everyone can see they are accomplishing great things for our University.
  • We also exchange pen-pal letters with nearby elementary students.  This gives children an extra opportunity to practice their writing skills and to learn about college students.  We enjoy hearing what the students are involved in and what their interests are, and the children benefit by communicating with older individuals, in which we hope to be role-models for these students. 
  • Moreover, our organization helps contribute to our campus community.  Before the school holds open houses for prospective students, members of SAAC come together and clean up campus.  We walk around with our teams and pick up trash in order to help keep the campus looking beautiful.  Lastly, we painted the wall by our turf stadium.  The activity brought our underclassmen together with our upperclassmen in a non-threatening manner to promote that we do not haze our freshman.  The event, known as “Raise NOT Haze” was a huge success, and the astonishing devil logo on the wall demonstrates part of our school spirit.  The members of Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee are dedicated to helping our campus and community come together to provide programs that touch people’s lives.