SHREVEPORT, La. – Senior Elizabeth (Liz) Sander received Centenary's Michael Schimpf Leadership Award Monday night, November 5, at #MondayMania18.
Sander, a member of the Ladies Gymnastics team since 2015, has served as a team captain each of the last three seasons. Outside of athletics, Sander has shown leadership qualities for the College in many different capacities. The past two years, Sander has served as a Head Ambassador for the Centenary admission office. Her duties include hiring and training new student ambassadors and acting as the liaison between ambassadors and the admissions staff, as well as giving tours and hosting prospective students.
For the 2018-19 academic year, Sander serves as a member of the prestigious Maroon Jackets, an organization of accomplished senior leaders dedicated to serving Centenary College and the community. This year, she also assists both as a student tutor for behavioral statistics and as a lab assistant in cell biology.
Finally, Sander involves herself in numerous volunteer opportunities, including all four years for both the annual Centenary Book Bazaar and World House Service Day. In the summer of 2016 and 2017, she helped as an orientation mentor, acting as a leader, guide, and role model for incoming Centenary students during the orientation process. This past summer, Liz was the new student experience coordinator, where she worked directly with the Director of Student Involvement to hire new staff, plan, coordinate, and execute both summer and fall orientations.
During her collegiate gymnastics career, Sander has received career highs of 9.725 on beam and 9.525 on floor.
The award is named for former Gents Baseball player Michael Schimpf (2014-17), who became the first Centenary student-athlete to win the prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and was also named First Team Academic All-American by the Collegiate Sports Information Director of America following his senior campaign in 2017. Schimpf was very accomplished on the field as well, being named a Second Team All-American by D3Baseball.com in 2017. He still holds the Gents Baseball career records (non-scholarship era) in on-base percentage (.484), runs (166), walks (92), and hit by pitches (53).
The Michael Schimpf Leadership Award was established by Michael's parents, Barbara and Carey Schimpf. The award recognizes a senior student-athlete who has shown leadership at Centenary on and off the athletic field and is planning to pursue post-graduate studies. The recipient receives a $1,000 scholarship.