IAN CAREY OF COLORADO COLLEGE, a sophomore on the men’s swimming & diving team, has been selected the SCAC Character & Community Male Student-Athlete-of-the-Week for the week beginning December 7, 2015.
The SCAC honors the efforts of student-athletes who excel in the field of athletics, and also serve their campus and community.
Despite being at Colorado College for only 16 months, sophomore swimmer Ian Carey has made his mark in the water, on campus and in the community.
Carey, a psychology major from Allentown, Pa., has a long-term goal of getting into a PhD program and pursuing a career as a professor. For now, however, he hopes to continue improving in the pool and expanding his community services and leadership experiences.
In addition to representing his fellow students on the Colorado College Athletic Board and the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC), Carey is the co-coordinator of “Little Cats,” a program started by recent graduate Matt Nadel that works with Meadows Park Community Center in Colorado Springs to teach underprivileged and low income children to swim.
“It is very fulfilling to help these kids learn to swim,” Carey said. “Swimming is not only a recreational activity but an actual survival skill.”
His favorite volunteer activity is delivering leftover food from Rastall Dining Hall to local soup kitchens and homeless shelters as part of the Colorado Springs Food Rescue.
“Once a week during the off-season, I load the food onto small trailers, hook them up to my bike and deliver it downtown,” he said. “It kind of tackles two principles, a lack of food for some in our community and helping the environment by using my bicycle.”
Carey also joins his teammates for the "Leader in Me" initiative with Will Rogers Elementary School. Members of the team go to the school throughout the year to discuss the meaning of leadership as it pertains to collegiate student-athletes.
“Ian’s teammates look up to him for his work ethic in the pool and in the classroom, as well as his willingness to do things for others,” head coach Anne Goodman James said. “He has really stood out in his work with Rogers Elementary School and its year-long leadership education project.”
Academically, Carey is a recipient of a National Merit Scholarship and the Colorado College Leadership Scholarship. He was a member of the SCAC academic honor roll and helped the team achieve the No. 1 spot in the country among Division III teams in the College Swimming Coaches Association of America's Scholar All-America rankings for the 2014 fall semester.
He also had a successful first year in the pool, placing the highest among all CC swimmers in the 200-yard breaststroke at the 2015 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference championships and earning a spot on the SCAC All-Sportsmanship team. He was also named the team’s Rookie of the Year award by his teammates.
Following the 2015-16 academic year, Carey hopes to work over the summer as part of a wildfire firefighting crew with the National Park Service or the Bureau of Land Management.