Bean Town Times

Boston College student-athletes compete in a wide variety of sports from football to men's and women's ice hockey, women's volleyball and and much more. 

The Eagles field 31 athletic teams but have one thing in common, according to Jade Morris, Boston College’s senior associate director for student-athlete development: A commitment to community service and involvement.

“Our student-athletes participate in at least one service opportunity every academic year,” Morris told Bean Town Times. “Our student-athletes understand that Boston College athletics has a strong tradition rooted in community service. Our primary outreach extends locally and in particular to the greater Boston area.”

The students at the private Catholic school in Chestnut Hill make a major impact.

“Boston College has over 750 student-athletes, and as a department, our student-athletes completed over 1,600 community service hours between 64 opportunities with 26 different organizations at the end of the 2019-20 school year,” she said.

“Boston College student-athletes have a unique platform to further the university mission, ‘Men and women for others.’ They want to make a positive and lasting impact in the community. Our partnerships with local schools and organizations provide our student-athletes with a variety of programming to give them an opportunity to make a difference.”

She said the young people have several choices on how to serve others.

“We partner with a variety of organizations and accomplish service engagements locally, regionally and nationally,” Morris said. “Our student-athletes participate in service in a variety of manners such as construction projects in homes devastated by natural disasters with SBP, shoe drives and distributions with Soles 4 Souls, donation organizing and sorting with Cradles to Crayons, patient visits with Franciscan’s Children Hospital, field day with Best Buddies, or our pen pal program with local elementary schools.”

At this time of year, the student-athletes are currently in the middle of the college’s annual holiday service event.

“The annual Adopt-A-Child program connects BC student-athletes with 190 underprivileged children from neighboring communities through the organization, Wonderfund of Massachusetts,” Morris said. “For over 37 years, the Adopt-A-Child holiday event has been the athletics department's signature community event. Each team is responsible for fundraising and purchasing the gifts for the children they adopt. All 31 of BC's varsity teams, as well as many coaches and athletics staff, adopted at least one child.

“Despite the circumstances with the pandemic, our student-athletes were adamant about continuing the tradition. We were able to change distribution logistics to ensure the safety of all involved parties.” 

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected how Boston College student-athletes interact with the community, but it didn’t stop them, Morris said.

“Despite in-person service opportunities being limited due to COVID, our student-athletes have found alternate ways to give back to the community,” she said. “They have personally wrote and distributed thank-you cards and hand sanitizers for the athletic department staff, participated in virtual 5Ks for Team Impact and the annual Welles Crowther Red Bandana event, collected food and non-perishable items for the homeless, assembled dinner bags with United Way and volunteered at the polls on Election Day.”