Jani Springer Awarded Grant from the NCAA Ethnic Minorities and Women’s Internship Grant Program

Jani Springer, assistant athletic director for diversity, equity, inclusion, and student success, received a grant from the NCAA’s Ethnic Minorities and Women’s Internship Grant program. This grant is designed to provide financial assistance to the division’s member schools and conferences that are committed to enhancing ethnic minority and gender representation in entry-level administrative positions in intercollegiate athletics.

At Grinnell, this grant will allow the athletics department to hire an assistant fitness and wellness coordinator, who will focus on developing wellness programming, assist with strength/conditioning/fitness programming for student-athletes, and collaborate on the management of the fitness center.

This program is designed to create entry-level positions that help people from groups underrepresented in athletics administration to develop as future leaders in the field; as such, the assistant fitness and wellness coordinator will receive mentoring and training from Grinnell colleagues and through external networks.

“Receiving this award from the NCAA affords the physical education, athletics, and recreation department the opportunity to improve the student-athlete experience, promote athletic excellence and nurture a young wellness professional. This was a team effort and I thank my PEAR colleagues, Susan Ferrari, and Cindy Schaus for their support,” says Springer.