BATON ROUGE — Several LSU student-athletes spoke to members of the Louisiana Youth Challenge program on Tuesday evening at the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes before the start of the LSU-Alabama men’s basketball game.
Jordan Faircloth and Brandon Nall of the nationally ranked baseball team, along with Mallory McDonald and Brandon Conine of the nationally ranked men’s and women’s track and field teams, spoke to the high school-aged boys and girls about overcoming adversity in their lives. Member of the program were on campus to attend the men’s basketball and were given a tour of the academic center, where the LSU student-athletes spoke to them.
The National Guard Youth Challenge Program is a structured, quasi-military training and mentoring program for at-risk youth that develops life skills, educational levels and employment potential of 16-18 year old high school drop-outs. The mission of the program is to intervene in the lives of the at-risk youth by providing the values, skills, education, and self-discipline needed to produce responsible, productive citizens.
The CHAMPS (Challenging Athletes Minds for Personal Success)/Life Skills Program was designed by the NCAA to help student-athletes realize higher academic achievement, increase likelihood of graduation and enter a chosen profession with a higher level of vision, knowledge, motivation, self-responsibility and greater overall success. In the spring of 2003, the CHAMPS/ Life Skills Program honored one of LSU’s most memorable graduates, Shaquille O’Neal, by naming the program after him.