Caila Criss, Colorado College, Women's Tennis

CAILA CRISS OF COLORADO COLLEGE, a senior on the women's tennis team, has been selected the SCAC Character & Community Female Student-Athlete-of-the-Week for the week ending June 15, 2014.

Whether on the court, in the classroom, or in a myriad of on-campus situations, Criss has been a teacher and a leader throughout her college experience.

Assisting others comes naturally for Criss, who first volunteered with groups that provided support for people with special needs in her hometown of Boulder, Colo.

She began by teaching life skills and basic math to high school students with severe developmental disabilities through the Boulder Valley School District, and then joined the City of Boulder Parks and Recreation EXPAND Program and worked with a physically disabled 3-year-old boy in his weekly gymnastics class.

One activity that Criss loves as much as volunteer work is tennis, and the opportunity to continue her career at the collegiate level was one of the reasons she chose to attend CC.

Criss made an immediate impact with the Tigers during her freshman campaign, winning six matches at No. 4 singles and nine at No. 3 doubles. The next year, after moving up a spot in the lineup, she recorded career highs of 10 singles victories and 13 in doubles.

As a junior, Criss posted winning ledgers in both singles (7-4) and doubles (7-6) despite battling through nagging injuries.

During her final season, the four-year starter led the team in victories with a 9-9 singles record and posted an 8-11 mark in doubles. Criss won four of five matches at the 2014 SCAC Championships to help Colorado College claim third place, its best-ever finish at the conference tournament.

Off the court, Criss represented her teammates as a member of CC’s Student-Athletic Advisory Committee since September of 2011. She participated in numerous Parents Night Out events as well as the athletics department’s annual celebration of National Girls and Women In Sports Day, both of which gave young kids the opportunity to interact with current Tiger athletes.

During her senior year, Criss also coached children and young adults at Colorado Springs Tennis, working alongside Colorado College Head Coach Anthony Weber.

At the same time, she was gaining valuable experience while serving as a peer monitor for CC’s Intensive English Institute and as a tutor at the college’s Ruth Barton Writing Center.

Criss also was a member of the Senior Class Committee that served as a liaison between the senior class and the college’s administration in regards to Commencement and graduation events. The committee also worked with their classmates to fund the senior class gift, an endowed scholarship in the name of Reuben Mitrani ’14, a classmate who passed away while studying abroad during his sophomore year. The scholarship will provide aid to a deep-need student each year.

She recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in education studies. Her major thesis was titled "Cultural Identity Exchange and Preservation Amongst International Camp Counselors at American Summer Camps," while her minor capstone was "An Analysis and Critique of Individualized Education Programs in Colorado School Districts."

Criss will utilize the findings of both bodies of work on June 16 when she begins a one-year fellowship with the Denver School for Science and Technology, a network of charter schools within Denver Public School system.