BATON ROUGE — LSU gymnast Kelly Phelan will speak to students at Southeast Middle on Friday morning for the school’s “Breakfast of Champions” as part of the Shaquille O’Neal CHAMPS/Life Skills program.
Phelan will address students who have shown great improvement in the classroom over the course of the year. The “Breakfast of Champions” will take place at 7:30 a.m. and is meant to reward these students for making these great strides in school.
A 2006 All-American on the floor, Phelan finished the regular season ranked No. 23 nationally in the all-around and has won two all-around titles this season. The senior from Orlando, Fla., also ranks No. 14 in the vault and No. 23 on the floor nationally.
A member of the SEC Good Works Team, Phelan serves as the president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and is a two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll. She took part in National Adoption Month and has volunteered at the Louisiana Gumbo Games while spearheading LSU’s annual community service projects including the Halloween BOOzar and the Christmas Toy Drive.
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 Spring 2003, the CHAMPS/ Life Skills Program honored one of LSU’s most memorable graduates, Shaquille O’Neal, by naming the program after him.