Charis Whitnah, Colorado College, Women's Track & Field

CHARIS WHITNAH OF COLORADO COLLEGE, a senior distance runner from Washington, D.C., has been selected the SCAC Character & Community Female Student-Athlete-of-the-Week for the week ending April 28, 2013.

Whitnah, who has posted personal records of 21:24 in the 5,000 meters a year ago and 13:05.67 in the 3K this spring, helped Colorado College amass a program-best 48 points in the team standings at the conference championship meet in San Antonio, Texas, last Friday and Saturday. She ran the 5K in 22:11.80.

But it’s her commitments away from the track that have made Whitnah a leader among CC’s student-athletes, on campus and in the Colorado Springs community throughout her four years at the school.

A Philosophy major with a minor in English and Psychoanalysis, she began her campus involvement as a residential advisor in August 2010, helping with social and educational programming to meet the needs of approximately 100 incoming students.  Her duties, in addition to role-modeling and enforcing Residential Life policies at Colorado College, included assisting with issues of homesickness, sexual assault, dating violence, suicide, depression, adjustment to college life, roommate conflicts, alcohol and drug abuse, and diversity.

The previous summer, in the wake of her freshman year at CC, Whitnah’s passion for working with young people surfaced when she served as an advisor for girls ages 10-12 at an overnight camp at Sprout Creek Farm in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.  She also completed professional studies in American Sign Language at Gallaudet University before returning west for her sophomore year.

Whitnah continued her involvement in the Colorado Springs community the following spring, when she became a Confidential Victim Advocate for TESSA as part of the college’s Public Interest Fellowship Program. From May through August of 2011, she empowered and counseled approximately 100 victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, teen dating violence, and child abuse while also providing advocacy to walk-in clients, victims at court, in the safehouse, and calling on the crisis line.

In addition, she has worked as a teacher’s aide at the Colorado School for the Deaf & Blind since January 2011, instructing hearing-impaired lower-high school students through a literacy program.

Within the walls of Colorado College, Whitnah has held elected positions including Vice President for Student Concerns (May 2012-present), Honor Board Junior Member for Beta Delta Chapter of the Delta Gamma Sorority, and VP of a philanthropic foundation that raised more than $1,000 on behalf of Service for Sight. She is an Adopt-a-Student Mentor with CC’s Student Alumni Association. For the last year, she also has worked with an on-line support group as a responder to online anonymous student posts regarding mental and emotional health issues.

After graduating in May, Whitnah plans to resume her career path with Teach For America, serving as a special educator/interventionist at the elementary-school level.