West Africans in the UAA Series, Part 1: Academics
The University Athletic Association (UAA) was founded on the premise that academic and athletic excellence are not mutually exclusive, with the membership consisting of some of the strongest academic institutions in the U.S. Emphasis on education and the pursuit of academic excellence is a consistent theme UAA student-athletes of WestContinue Reading
West Africans in the UAA Series: Introduction
In November, the Institute of International Education (IIE) reported that the number of Nigerian students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities increased by 22 percent in 2022-23. Nigeria emerged as the only African nation among the top-10 countries with the highest number of students studying in the U.S. Those numbersContinue Reading
Jewish UAA Student-Athletes Share Traditions and Practices as Passover Approaches
As of 2020, there were 7.2 million people in the U.S. who identified as Jewish, second only to Israel worldwide. UAA Jewish student-athletes celebrate their identity and holidays like Passover, which is later this month, in a multitude of ways. Freshman men’s basketball student-athlete Alan Mashensky founded the NYU JewishContinue Reading
Fasting For Faith: UAA Student-Athletes Observe Ramadan
Four UAA student-athletes, including a trio from Case Western Reserve University, are among the approximately two billion Muslims worldwide currently observing Ramadan, a holy month of fasting based on when the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the Prophet Mohammad, the final prophet of Islam, more than 1,400Continue Reading
History of a UAA Signature Event: The Track & Field Black Student-Athlete Dinner
Case Western Reserve University hosted a Black student-athlete get-together at the 2022 UAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, the first such event of its kind in UAA history. What started as an idea from then Washington University student-athlete Andrew Whitaker to potentially bring Black track & field student-athletes together developedContinue Reading
UAA Black Student-Athlete History; Part 3: Full Slate and the Formation of UAA BLAC
With seven of the eight UAA schools running an active Black student-athlete group, NYU Senior Associate Athletic Director Janice Quinn reached out to men’s basketball rising junior Zay Freeney about re-starting NYU BLAC. “I was on board immediately and was part of something like that in high school,” recalled Freeney,Continue Reading