SAMANTHA
MATULIS OF AUSTIN COLLEGE, a
junior pitcher on the women’s softball team
from Gilmer, Texas, has been has been selected the SCAC Character
& Community Female Student-Athlete-of-the-Week for the week
ending May 13, 2012.
Matulis has been an active member of the
Austin College community since arriving on campus as a freshman
three years ago, and in addition to a strong career as a pitcher on
the softball team, she has been a Dean’s List student and is
a member of Austin College’s prestigious Posey Leadership
Institute.
In both 2010 and 2011, Matulis worked as a
volunteer in Empower-A-Child in Kampala, Uganda, working with
Ugandan ex-child soldiers who were in need of psychological aid,
and in the fall 2011 semester returned to Uganda and volunteered at
St. Monica’s School for orphaned, ex-child soldiers.
Matulis has also worked in the Women’s
Crisis Center in Sherman and at Hidden Acres Summer Retreat Center
in Kaufman, Texas, where she worked with refugees. At Hidden Acres,
she helped to teach refugees American English language skills,
American history and American social and cultural norms.
Matulis was also a member of the Austin College
Student Assembly from the fall of 2009 through the spring of
2011.