Courtesy: SEC Sports
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The SEC sponsors Community Service Teams for all 21 league sponsored sports. The Community Service Team looks to highlight an athlete from each school who gives back to their community in superior service efforts. The 2023 SEC Women’s Swimming & Diving Community Service Team is as follows:
Kensey McMahon, Graduate, Alabama
McMahon has been a team representative for the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for four years and currently serves on the executive board as the campus collaboration chair. As chair, she serves as the campaign manager/public relations coordinator as the athlete representative for all homecoming activities. Additionally, McMahon serves as coordinator of the school’s adaptive athletics event. Throughout her time in SAAC, she has helped with the annual Halloween Extravaganza, Beat Hunger Food Drive and has participated in read a louds as well as assisted physical education classes in our local elementary schools. In visiting the Tuscaloosa schools, McMahon has been on the mentorship team with Brothers and Big Sisters of West Alabama. She has been a Big for three years where they meet weekly for lunch. McMahon supports her Little with friendship, homework help and encouragement in all her pursuits. Throughout her time at the University of Alabama, she has also been an active member of Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Reilly Shaner, Senior, Arkansas
Shaner participated in the Tyson Food Truck Drive. She also helped volunteer in the Walker Park-Trail Cleanup Project. Shaner contributed to the University of Arkansas Student Engagement Day on campus and was a part of the homecoming post-event clean up. She helped lead the annual Shop with the Razorbacks event during the holiday season, was involved in the holiday caroling for the veterans and helped with the Christmas Gift Wrapping.
Brynn Curtis, Junior, Auburn
Curtis has led the way for the Auburn Women’s Swim and Dive program for community service, donating more than 50 hours of her time to community service in 2022-23. She has been a staple at the Lee County Humane Society, and has participated in projects at Story Brook Farms and the Big House Foundation. Curtis volunteered at the INOVA hospital, helped organize a food bank during Thanksgiving and Christmas and aided the Special Olympics of Alabama.
Nina Kucheran, Graduate, Florida
Kucheran worked as a community greeter for Health Sciences North. She was also an advocate for mental health, volunteering for mental health training and events. Kucheran has served as an exercise physiology volunteer, a head campus captain, and a swimming educator at a local elementary school.
Zoie Hartman, Senior, Georgia
During her time in Athens, Hartman has worked with Turkey Palooza, providing Thanksgiving groceries and meals to older adults and families in the Athens area. She has also worked with Project Safe, donating items to victims of domestic violence, as well as Books for Keeps, cleaning and organizing the warehouse for a community book fair. Hartman has assisted with Extra Special People (children with autism, disabilities, and special needs) in throwing a party night, participated in a prom night for Special Olympics, and is working with the Brooklyn Cemetery in Athens to restore and beautify the area. Through the swimming team, she has participated in the Swim Across America 5K race and worked with the team in its Team Impact partnership to befriend a young leukemia survivor. Hartman has been named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll and J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics Honor Roll in all three prior years of her career. She is an inductee to the L.E.A.D. Leadership Education and Development Program and a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, as well as a member of the Palladia secret society. Additionally, Hartman was chosen to represent UGA at the Women in Leadership Convention in Kansas City in October 2022.
Tori Orcutt, Junior, Kentucky
Orcutt has contributed over 130 hours of community service since the start of the 2022-23 academic year. She has worked with Southland Children’s Ministry, AMACHI, Julius Marks Elementary School, Kentucky Swim Camp and more. Orcutt has served as a mentor for youth in Lexington through AMACHI an organization which aims to help children affected by incarceration. Other projects include leading lessons and activities for children, assisting at Christmas drives and speaking with elementary school students. Orcutt is a member of the Air Force ROTC at Kentucky. She has won the Community Service Award at CATSPY’S – UK Athletics’ annual award banquet each of the last two years.
Jade Hannah, Sophomore, LSU
In December, Hannah helped the Recreation and Park Commission for the Parish of East Baton Rouge (BREC) with the set-up, operation and clean up of a children’s community event. She is a part of the Black Student Athlete Association (BSAA) and is the Vice President of the Family committee within the swimming and diving program. Hannah oversaw the organization of the MLK Day of Service with BSAA at a local animal shelter.
Sierra Smith, Junior, Missouri
Smith has accumulated over 100 hours of service working with the City of Columbia and Columbia Public Schools. She assisted Habitat for Humanity to help local families. Smith has spent the majority of her time working with the local group Turning Point, spending time with the community playing bingo and leading bible study. She is a two-time member of the Winter SEC Academic Honor Roll.
Haley Mason, Junior, South Carolina
Mason has completed more than 65 hours of community service this academic year. She has primarily spent her time volunteering at the Free Medical Clinic in Columbia, SC. The clinic provides no-cost healthcare to Columbia’s underserved community and those who do not have insurance. Mason began her work at the clinic in administration, filing paperwork and helping patients file for federal financial aid. She has since began working directly in the clinic, doing preliminary assessments such as taking blood pressure and determining case history to provide hospital referrals. Mason has also volunteered at both the Riverbanks Boo at the Zoo event and the Junior Gamecock Club Halloween event where she passed out candy to children. She is a student of the South Carolina Honors College and intends to take a pre-law track where she will study public health policy. Mason has served twice as a team captain for the university’s Relay for Life where she assembled a team of 70+ people to fundraise for the fight against cancer. She has also served on the university’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee and is on both the SAAC and the Swim & Dive Team’s community service teams. Mason is a two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll and was a CSCAA Scholar All-American (Second Team) in 2022.
Margaret Marando, Junior, Tennessee
Marando has helped out at several projects in Knoxville. During the 2021-22 academic year, she was a member of the VOLeaders Academy, which was developed to cultivate positive student-athlete leaders through sport to create positive social change. Her time with the program concluded with a cultural exchange trip to Rwanda, where she applied leadership skills and participated in service opportunities focused on community development and social change. While at a Project Life Movement event last year, she had her cheeks swabbed and later found she was a match for a four-year-old boy with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The deadly disease required an intensive operation to collect bone marrow from Marando, but the choice to donate was an easy one and saved a life. She is a two-time SEC Academic Honor Roll selection.
Caroline Theil, Senior, Texas A&M
Theil has volunteered to read to second grade students in the local Bryan-College Station area as a part of Rev’ved Up to Read. She served as Executive Board Leader in WE(3)-Women Encourage, Equip & Empower for both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. In the fall of 2020, Theil stepped in as a Peer Mentor in Hullabaloo U while also being a part of the Horizon Performance Emerging Leaders Program. She also became a Traditions Night Huddle Leader in the Fall of 2021 and 2022.
Chantal Jordan, Senior, Vanderbilt
Jordan served for over two years as a youth instructor with Swim America, managing a groups of up to 15 individuals while teaching water safety and encouraging skill development in order to help young swimmers maximize their performance in the pool. She also has volunteered with the Fifty Forward Retirement Center and Brookdale Senior Living over the last two years, and has twice taken part in activities with Feed the Children. A member of the executive board of the Black Student-Athlete Group, Jordan is a participant with the Pre-Nursing Society and has also been involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes while attending female sport Bible study sessions. Named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll each of the last two seasons and a member of the 2019-20 SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll, she has earned Dean’s List honors on four separate occasions during her collegiate career. Jordan has served as a team captain for the Commodores her senior season.
