June 6, 2011
EVANSTON, Ill. -- As a part of an ongoing effort to visit Chicago-area schools to raise awareness for the importance of academics in collegiate sports, three Northwestern student-athletes, Austin Nichols, Reggie Hearn and John Plasencia, made a trip to Galapagos Charter School on Friday.
In an attempt to expose students to the benefits of a college experience, Galapagos, located on Chicago's west side, focuses much of its energy into creating relationships with universities around Illinois, while instructors share their individual experiences from their time in college. At least once a year students and instructors will make a visit to a college or university campus, but this time Northwestern came to them.
Nichols, Hearn and Plasencia spoke to the entire student body during their lunch hour before holding a small-group session with the seventh-graders. The three sophomores touched on the benefits of creating good habits at an early age and the importance of going above and beyond with schoolwork.
After speaking about their own path to Northwestern as student-athletes, the trio answered questions that the class had, ranging from the type of challenges they face as students at Northwestern to their hopes of possibly becoming a professional athlete. Following the students' questions, the class was able to participate in Galapagos' "Get Active" time while playing basketball and throwing the football with the NU athletes.
"This was a great experience for our students," said seventh-grade teacher Rebecca Condon. "Having Northwestern student-athletes talk to my seventh-graders about what it takes to get to college was a great opportunity for them to see what can happen when you work hard in school. The students enjoyed talking to the NU student-athletes and getting to show off some moves in basketball!"
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