CHARLESTON, S.C. – The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), in partnership with the Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee (MOIC) and the national Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) is rolling out the 2018 MOIC and SAAC Diversity and Inclusion Social Media Campaign Monday, Oct. 1 – Friday, Oct. 5.

The Citadel Department of Athletics took part in the campaign, exhibiting the great things Bulldog cadet-athletes do away from the fields and courts of competition. Throughout the week, Bulldog Athletics posted to the various social media accounts snapshots of the bios of cadet-athletes in an effort to share a different side of the story of The Citadel cadet-athletes.

Monday, Oct. 1 kicked off the campaign by highlighting student-athletes' multiple identities. The focus was on student-athletes' individual identities, showing them to be more than just an athlete. Tuesday, Oct. 2 focused on debunking athletics-related stereotypes. The day focused on what stereotypes student-athletes face and showing they are more than just athletes. Wednesday, Oct. 3 featured a focal point on the statistics around student-athletes.

MELLANIE KING, SO., OH, VOLLEYBALL
Mellanie King is a sophomore outside hitter on the volleyball team. A native of Southlake, Texas where she attended Carroll High School, King is majoring in criminal justice with the plans to either go into the FBI or become a criminal psychologist after graduating. Not only is King establishing herself as a standout on the volleyball team, she is also a Human Affairs Corporal for her company as part of The South Carolina Corps of Cadets.

"I am in charge of helping to make sure everything is running smoothly between all of the cadets within my company, particularly within Athletic Cadre," said King. "I remember last year, during my knob year, it was nice to have someone that I could go to and have available to talk to, and I wanted to be that person for others. This role is helping me prepare for my career after graduation in that you have to be able to work with a lot of different people as a professional. In my current role, I am able to develop my interpersonal skills while working on building relationships with members of my company. I am also learning to communicate while taking into consideration the feelings of those I am working with."

HANNAH ROTH, SO., MF, SOCCER
Hannah Roth is a sophomore midfielder for the women's soccer team. A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she attended Jenks High School, Roth is majoring in political science. With a team comprised of mostly freshmen and sophomores, Roth has stepped up as a leader on the soccer pitch, and part of that can be attributed to her role as Cadre Squad Corporal.

"My job as a Cadre Squad Corporal is to train the knobs to become a part of our company and the South Carolina Corps of Cadets," Roth said. "I teach them everything they need to know from shining shoes and brass, getting their room in inspection order, and making sure they know their knob knowledge from the Guidon. This teaches me and the other sophomores on cadre more about leadership and prepares us to take higher leadership positions in the future. This has helped me learn the traits it takes to be an effective leader both on and off the soccer field. It has also helped me learn patience and forgiveness, which I can use after graduation. Being an in-season athlete and a cadre squad corporal has been very time consuming and hard to manage, but it has made me more active in the Corps and has enhanced my leadership on the team."

LAUREN PRINGLE, SR., RIFLE
Lauren Pringle is a senior on the women's rifle team. A native of Sumter, South Carolina, where she attended Sumter High School, Pringle joined the rifle team prior to her junior year and has added student teaching to her rigorous schedule this year.

"I student teach honors biology for freshman and sophomores and CP Earth Science," Pringle said. "My plans after graduation are to teach high school biology in the Charleston area, so this internship not only gives me the experience I need, but the connections as well. Student teaching has helped me learn time management above everything else. It has forced me to plan for the entire week rather than just the day of to try and get my assignments done, fulfill my obligations to my students and their parents, and do everything I need to for the rifle team. I really appreciate the flexibility my coaches and teammates have shown as they help me along given my restricted schedule."

LOGAN MILLER, SR., MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD
Logan Miller is a senior hurdler on the men's track and field team. A native of Kannapolis, North Carolina, where he attended A.L. Brown High School, he is working towards a double major in exercise science and Spanish while also earning a minor in biology. After graduation, Miller plans to go to graduate school to work on becoming a physician assistant in the United State Air Force. To help him achieve that goal, over the summer he went on his third study abroad program, this time to Lithuania. While there, he and several other Citadel cadets shadowed Lithuanian healthcare professionals and learned about the country's healthcare system while also experience a whole different culture.

"The trip was a healthcare study abroad trip in Klaipeda, Lithuania. The whole goal of the trip was to help students interested in entering the healthcare field get shadowing hours in a hospital with different doctors, surgeons and nurses," said Miller. "It was a really great experience because not only did we get to shadow doctors while earning credit hours, we also established global connections and we learned about another healthcare system and traveled to a new country. We were able to be in surgeries, and you can't get that experience in the United States without a lot of paperwork and a long, difficult process. It was really great to see how well the healthcare providers over there treat their patients because it's a patient-centered healthcare system, which means instead of focusing on an array of treatments, they focus on the problem itself and focus more on the patient."

Miller kept a blog throughout his entire trip with photos and details about what he experienced. The blog can be accessed HERE.

CARICIA RODRIGUEZ, JR., VOLLEYBALL
Caricia Rodriguez is a junior libero for the volleyball team. A native of Naperville, Illinois, she attended Neuqua Valley High School. Last academic year, she earned a South Carolina Palmetto Gold nurse scholarship and was recognized at a banquet in Columbia. The purpose of the South Carolina Palmetto Gold program is to support the future of nursing by providing $1,000 nursing scholarship to outstanding registered nurse undergraduates in the state recommended by their institutions. Rodriguez is a part of the first class of cadet nursing majors in The Citadel Swain Department of Nursing.

"I want to go into pediatric oncology or neonatal nursing, which everyone says are two of the toughest ones, but I have always wanted to do that," Rodriguez said. "I am looking forward to it because my family was in and out of the hospital when I was growing up because my sister had a lot of surgeries due to health complications. Being there with her and being so young around nurses who were teaching me about what was going on in a way that a young kid could understand, that really inspired me to become a nurse. I want to be able to give the same feeling of hope and security to patients and families that the nurses taking care of my family gave to me."

DEREK WEBSTER, JR., SO., BASKETBALL
Derek Webster, Jr. is a sophomore on the men's basketball team. Hailing from Tampa, Florida, he played his prep ball at Seffner Christian Academy. Recently, the men's basketball team completed their annual Operation Find a Way program, a preseason conditioning program that is designed to teach the cadet-athletes how to think while exhausted and under stress. Webster wanted to find a way to be a leader with the team, so he organized a food drive that brought in close to 1,100 canned goods that weighed over 365 pounds. The team delivered those goods to the Lowcountry Food Bank on Saturday, Sept. 22 and then stayed for several hours helping organize and sort the donations that the LFB is collecting, both to help locals in need on a daily basis and those affected by Hurricane Florence.

"I am a firm believer that everything does not revolve around basketball. Operation Find a Way is what inspired me to lead the team to collect donations and help volunteer at the food bank on Saturday," Webster said. "We can't get through that week of conditioning or even games on our own. Without the team pushing you and motivating you to fight through fatigue and to finish strong, it may feel near impossible to complete. So, I started thinking how Operation Find a Way could translate away from basketball and I came up with the idea of volunteering at a food bank. We recently had a hurricane hit the Carolinas and those affected need our help with providing them with food and other goods. So we collected, organized and boxed up canned goods and delivered them to the food bank."

ABIGAIL MURN, SR., VOLLEYBALL
Abigail Murn is a senior on the Bulldog volleyball team. A native of Mooresville, North Carolina, she attended Lake Norman High School. Murn is one of numerous cadet-athletes who have chosen to commission into one of the branches of the military upon graduation. Come May, Murn is set to commission as a second lieutenant with the U.S. Army, and hopes to go in as an engineering officer. She already has a busy schedule with being a cadet-athlete; juggling her duties within the Corps as well as in the classroom and adding in the rigors of being a volleyball athlete. As an Army contract, she has additional responsibilities and classes. This summer, rather than take the summer off to relax, she went through Cadet Summer Training (CST) in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

"My senior year has been focused on the officer side of being in the military, things I will be doing as a second lieutenant once I commission," Murn said. "I am an MS1 leader and I teach the freshmen about the ins and outs of what they will be going through for the next four years. I also have Army-specific classes that I go to on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I also have a lab. I'm a squad mentor for first platoon, third squad and in that role I serve as a mentor for the freshmen: teaching them how to wear their gear properly, teaching them the correct terminology for the army because it is different than what we use here at The Citadel. This summer, I went to CST and I went through an officer training course. We were put into very stressful environments with very little sleep and it was all based around how we react to those types of situations. I acted as both a platoon leader and as a platoon sergeant. The difference is a platoon sergeant is all about accountability and the platoon leader is about the decision processing. The whole experience taught me a lot about what I can expect once I enter the Army."

JORDAN BLACK, SR., FOOTBALL
Jordan Black is a senior on the football team and hails from Vidalia, Georgia. Not only does Black have to juggle being a cadet in the Corps as well as the starting quarterback for the Bulldogs, but he is also preparing to commission into the United States Air Force. Black takes Air Force specific courses, and over the summer he went to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama to complete 15 days of intensive training.

"We did a lot of activities that brought out the real leadership in who you are. It was intense training, more mental than physical for me because I had to readjust and get into that mindset," said Black. "It was definitely an eye-opening experience for me to be able to see what type of leader I was and be able to bring that back to Charleston with me. In past years, I've been more of a guy who leads by example rather than by vocalizing it. This year, I have been more vocal with the team and trying to be the guy that they can all look up to and see that I'm doing the right things."

SUMMER THOMPSON, SR., WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD
Summer Thompson is a senior on the women's track and field team and is a native of Raeford, North Carolina. Outside of focusing on doing her best in high jump (she has advanced to the SoCon Track Meet every year) and in the classroom (she has earned two gold stars, been featured on the Dean's List twice), she is an Army contract. Thompson has gone to every field training exercise (FTX) since her freshman year and attended mini-camp earlier this year at Fort Jackson (May 5–8). After mini-camp, she graduated from Cadet Summer Training on Aug. 4 following 30 days of training at Fort Knox.

"Even after FTX weekends in Fort Jackson and only having four hours of sleep and a long ruck march, I still make my way to track practice that following Monday doing the best I can," Thompson said. "I am always on the go, and sometimes it takes away from the free time that a regular cadet may have, such as General Leave of Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Sometimes I say, 'Wow, I've done so much today! I haven't had any time to just stop and take a deep breath.' Some people say, 'I feel bad for you,' but I say, 'Don't. Army and track only help me to become a better person and perform ten times better at everything I do.' Juggling my studies, Army training and track practice can be rigorous, but it's not impossible. It just takes a lot of dedication and some sweat for it to happen.  I am proud of all the accomplishments I have done with my time here at The Citadel."

For more information on The Citadel Department of Athletics, please visit CitadelSports.com or follow @CitadelSports on Twitter.