Will Bowers, Colorado College, Men's Swimming

WILL BOWERS OF COLORADO COLLEGE, a senior on the men's swimming team, has been selected the SCAC Character & Community Male Student-Athlete-of-the-Week for the week ending March 3, 2013.

Bowers personifies what being a student-athlete at Colorado College is all about. He excels in the classroom, he devotes countless hours to community service both on and off campus, and like every member of the swimming and diving team, he has seen dramatic drops in times throughout his career thanks to the program’s demanding training regimen.

At the recent 2013 SCAC Championships, Bowers set a personal record every time he hit the pool. He turned in a time of 22.71 during the preliminaries of the 50-yard freestyle and then lowered that with a 22.41 in a time trial.

His exhibition clocking of 48.59 in the prelims of the 100 free would have won the consolation final, and he went .26 faster in another time trial.

Finally, Bowers would have earned a spot in the finals of the 200 free with his exhibition mark of 1:47.57 in the preliminaries.

Bowers' academic performance has been just as impressive.

The Salt Lake City native owns a 3.59 grade-point average as a biochemistry major and is pursuing a minor in studio art.

Like most renaissance men, Bowers devotes a great deal of his free time to community service.

He is the co-chair of Volunteer Action, a group that provides a mentoring experience to at-risk youth in the Colorado Springs school district. CC students serve as role models and friends, and they participate in activities such as kickball, a photo scavenger hunt, or a day at a museum, to name a few.

This year, Bowers helped raise funds for Movember Foundation, which supports male cancer initiatives and awareness. He also is involved in Kicks for Casa, an annual kickball tournament which raises funds for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of the Pikes Peak Region.

His community service is not limited to campus and Colorado Springs.

Last summer, Bowers traveled to Vietnam for 20 days with Children of Peace International, a non-profit organization that set up clinics throughout the country to provide basic medical exams and dental care to primarily children and the elderly.

His duties included assembling the pharmaceutical packages that were distributed and entertaining the kids waiting to be seen with arts, crafts, and games.

Bowers also gained valuable medical experience the last two summers when he interned at the University of Utah Cardiothoracic Research Division. In 2011, his unit focused on chick embryo heart development. Last year, his research involved stem cell research and protein purification.

After graduating in May, Bowers plans to travel, find a job in a medical field or volunteer at hospitals, and work on his application to medical school.