Several members of the Wayne State Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), along with SAAC co-advisor Dr. Muffin Morris and Wayne State College President Dr. Marysz Rames, attended the 2022 NSIC SAAC Summit held in Winona, Minnesota May 22-24 (Sunday-Tuesday). Representing Wayne State's Student Athlete Advisory Committee at the NSIC SAAC Summit were Regan Ott (women's soccer), Kendra Paasch (track and field) and Isabelle Vacek (volleyball/beach volleyball).  Over 75 representatives from all 16 NSIC institutions will participate in activities to build camaraderie between NSIC SAAC leadership, enhance communication skills and learn more about preparing for life after college. 
            Sunday evening it was announced that Minnesota Duluth was awarded the SAAC Cup for the 2021-22 school year with 18,774 points followed by 2020 champion Wayne State in second place at 12,233 points.  MSU Moorhead (8330), Minnesota State (6968) and Winona State (6903) rounded out the top five teams in the NSIC SAAC Cup Standings. 
            The three-day summit kicked off Sunday with DiSC Communication style assessment and navigating difficult conversations with Justin Patton followed by a dinner/social with the Board of Directors and President Rames.  Monday's activities included programming in the morning by Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE), Life after Collegiate Athletics panel and career learning round tables.  The afternoon was spent working several hours of clean up on the trail and bluff at Sugar Loaf Bluff in Winona followed by an opportunity to go climbing.  Monday evening's events were highlighted by an etiquette dinner where athletes learned how to eat in a business setting and have a business dinner conversation.  Tuesday's events to conclude the SAAC Summit included holding business meetings to discuss topics for the upcoming school year.
            Wayne State College (WSC) Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) is a committee of student-athlete representatives from each sport that are assembled to provide insight on the student-athlete experience and offer input on the NCAA, NSIC and WSC rules, regulations and policies that affect student-athletes' lives.
            Throughout the 2021-22 academic year SAAC actively fund-raised for Make-A-Wish by doing Pass the Bucket at home sporting events, a Santa photo booth at the Men's/Women's Basketball games. selling popcorn and encouraging others to participate in the Take 5 to Give 5 event. SAAC also sold goodie bags that friends and family members could buy for student-athletes at the end of each semester. Through these efforts, SAAC is proud to announce that we were able to raise a record high of roughly $5,400 for Make-A-Wish this year!
             Community involvement is another large aspect of our group. Each month we donate our time to deliver and fill backpacks with food for the Wayne Backpack program. The program helps feed roughly 120 students in need at the Wayne community schools. We also hosted the Pie-In-the-Face fundraiser where we were able to raise roughly $250 for the Wayne Backpack program. SAAC also looks forward to walking in the Parade of Lights each year to help the Wayne community kick off the holiday season.
            Throughout the year we also had various events like our Green Bandana project, It's a Slam Dunk, Don't Drive Drunk and It's On Us/One Love to raise awareness on mental health, drinking and driving and sexual violence and healthy relationships. New this year, was an initiative addressing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. SAAC decided to adopt the following two slogans "Together as One WE Surrender our Biases and "Diversity is a fact; Inclusion is an act." At a few home events SAAC members encouraged attendees to test their knowledge about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion trivia and had bag tags available with our slogans on them.
            Finally, the WSC campus community is also important to SAAC. In addition to the events listed above SAAC held a food drive at a home football, volleyball, and basketball game where all proceeds went to the WSC Food Pantry on campus.