As the end of spring semester approaches, Special Olympics College Club (SOCC) at Concordia will close out its first official year as a campus organization. March is an important month for SOCC because it is Disability Awareness Month. The purpose of the club is to bring together athletes from the surrounding communities who have disabilities and students on campus to promote inclusivity through sports.
Each month there is a meeting to check in with club members, go over the agenda for the following weeks, and announce any special events SOCC will be participating in. The following weeks are spent practicing the featured sport for that month.
On March 10, the check-in question was “If the end of a rainbow was anywhere in the world where do you think it would be?” Answers ranged from Ireland to tropical beaches to Disneyland.
Throughout March, SOCC will be partnering with the men’s and women’s tennis teams on campus to run practices. In February, SOCC partnered with the volleyball team to run a clinic for participating athletes.
SOCC will also be participating in the Polar Plunge on April 15 at MSUM’s campus. Austin Fellman, the president of SOCC, is especially looking forward to this event because the Polar Plunge is how he originally got involved with Special Olympics in high school.
As president, Fellman acts as a point of contact between the Special Olympics Minnesota State program and Special Olympics North America.
“We needed to bring more disability awareness to campus, get these athletes onto a college campus and connect with their peers,” he said. “I have loved getting to know our athletes in the community; they have a big role in keeping our program alive!”
This sentiment is reciprocated by several club members.
Jenny is one of the athletes who participates in SOCC. She said her favorite part of coming to club meetings is spending time with Austin.
“He makes it fun,” she said.
Fellman hopes to get more Concordia students and student-athletes involved in SOCC next year, to continue making an impact. No previous experience with Special Olympics is required to join. He also emphasized that the club is recreational and social with the main goals of having fun and spreading inclusion
Darby Hannan, SOCC’s treasurer, also said that the people she’s met have been her favorite part of joining.
“I joined the Special Olympics club because it was something I was super involved in during high school, but the first couple of years I was in college this club didn’t exist. When I knew Austin was starting it I had to join,” she said.
Hannan was part of a Unified Champion School where she played soccer and basketball with the participating athletes. According to the Special Olympics website, Unified Champion Schools have “climates where students with disabilities feel welcome and are routinely included in, and feel a part of, all activities, opportunities and functions.”
Dominik Hagen serves as the coach coordinator this year and was in charge of scheduling practices, teaching each sport and supervising drills.
“It’s really important to make sure everyone feels included because everyone deserves to participate in sports. No one should feel like they’re pushed to the side,” he said.
With President Donald Trump’s executive order terminating DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs and policies in the federal government, there have been questions about how that will affect colleges that receive federal funding.
As far as Fellman knows, this will have little to no impact on SOCC.
“Regardless, we’ll keep up and running unless Concordia or the Special Olympics state program reaches out,” he said.
For updates on SOCC or if you are interested in joining, follow special.olympics_concordia on Instagram and reach out to Austin Fellman at afellman@cord.edu
