Honoring the Champions of IMPACT Across Divisions I, II, and III
At Team IMPACT, we believe in the power of connection, the strength of resilience, and the transformative impact of team. Every year, our Fellowship program empowers student-athletes from across the country to champion inclusion, cultivate community, and drive meaningful change through service, sport, and leadership; and every year, a select few rise above the rest, exemplifying what it means to be ambassadors of the Team IMPACT mission.
We’re thrilled to announce our 2025 Fellowship Campuses of the Year: University of Minnesota, St. Michael’s College, and Macalester College. These institutions are home to extraordinary Fellows, athletic departments, and student-athletes who have gone above and beyond to make a lasting impact on the lives of our children, families, and teammates.
Our Division I Fellowship Campus of the Year, the University of Minnesota, has truly led with heart this year. Sarah Moraw (gymnastics) and Elizabeth Overberg (soccer) are the Gophers’ first class of Team IMPACT Fellows, and they set the bar high for other Division I schools looking to embed Team IMPACT into the fabric of their athletics departments. From campus-wide awareness campaigns to seamless integration of Team IMPACT matches into the culture of Gopher athletics, the Fellows at Minnesota have created a blueprint for what it looks like to lead at scale. To these Fellows, this recognition means more than the bragging rights of winning this award. This is fuel to continue furthering Team IMPACT’s work even more, in the Twin Cities and beyond.
“I am incredibly humbled to bring this award back to the University of Minnesota,” Sarah said. “As a campus new to the Fellowship program, it is exciting to see the growth over the course of the last two years. With my platform as a student-athlete, it is exciting to see the increased community engagement and the big impact it is making not only on the athletes at our school but in the local community as well. Team IMPACT continuously holds a special place in my heart, and it has been such an honor to be part of something bigger than myself.”
One event that embodied the community of Team IMPACT was FallFest, a collaborative event between the University of Minnesota and Macalester College. This event welcomed Team IMPACT families, student-athletes, athletic staff, and supporters from across the Twin Cities together for a day of crafts, games, sports, and an on-court recognition at a volleyball game. This collaboratation lead directly to more teams in the Twin Cities signing up for Team IMPACT and more families and supporters gaining awareness for the mission. “Ultimately, it was a time for fellowship, fun, and food,” Sarah said, “but I believe that this spoke volumes to the unity that Team IMPACT strives for on a national level. This event mirrors the importance of looking beyond our individual self, sport, college, and division to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.”
That sentiment is echoed by the Fellows at Macalester, Theo Darci-Maher and Sarah Solomon. This collaborative event, along with dozens of other moments at Macalester, built on the momentum of Team IMPACT’s mission on campus, earning the Scots the recognition of 2025 Division III Fellowship Campus of the Year. By highlighting how this mission aligns with that of the Macalester athletics department, Theo and Sarah helped foster an environment of inclusion, empathy, and action that helped transform lives—both on and off the field.
“As a school, Macalester highly values diversity and community engagement,” said Theo, a former member of the men’s soccer team. “The athletic department holds the same values with one more key belief: compete. Matching with Team IMPACT means going from mid-table to winning national championships. It means bringing people together in a powerful way that changes the lives of people in our community.”
Macalester College has long been known for its civic engagement and global mindset, and this year, its Team IMPACT Fellows brought those values into clear focus. “Team IMPACT is one of the most powerful ways we are able to embody civic engagement,” Sarah, a former member of the women’s soccer team, said. “The program also pushes athletes to compete harder and lead better, and we aim to increase that Macalester connection so that we can really cement community and togetherness as Macalester core values.” Through service events, community initiatives, and strong collaboration with coaches and administrators, the Fellows have led the embedded of Team IMPACT into the DNA of Macalester Athletics.
“This award means a lot to our department,” Sarah said. “This was our first year having Fellows on our campus, and we worked really hard to make a strong foundation for the program at Macalester. It has been amazing to watch our presence grow on campus, and knowing that everyone at Team IMPACT sees that too feels really awesome.” Sarah found an extra sense of pride and legacy in this award because her former soccer coach, Madeline Buckley, has been involved with Team IMPACT since her time as a student-athlete. “It feels really great to be able to make her proud and show her that the lifelong work she has been doing is being embodied to this day.”
In addition to Minnesota and Macalester, St. Michael’s is also a 2025 Fellowship Campus of the Year. To St. Mike’s, community is everything. This small but mighty Division II campus in Vermont has shown the world that you don’t need a massive athletic program to make a massive difference. The Fellows at St. Michael’s—Kiera Parker (softball) and Elani Gikas (soccer)—led with compassion, creativity, and consistency, fostering deep relationships between student-athletes and Team IMPACT families.
When Kiera became a Fellow in 2023, she was the lone Fellow at St. Mike’s with a short-term goal of spreading awareness and familiarizing the St. Mike’s community with the Team IMPACT mission and a long-term goal of having a match on every team on campus. To her, this award is a recognition of just how far that vision has come. “I was blown away with the support that I received from both the student-athletes and the entire athletic department at St. Mike’s,” she said. “This award not only shows what we are capable of achieving as an athletic department but motivates us to continue what we have been doing and set new, ambitious milestones for our program to achieve while making Team IMPACT a top priority on our campus.”
As a Fellow, Kiera founded a Team IMPACT subcommittee in SAAC; spearheaded the first ever Home Run Derby to raise more than $1,000 for Team IMPACT; appeared on the local news with her Team IMPACT teammate, Katie, who nominated Kiera as a finalist for Team IMPACT’s Teammate of the Year; and recruited more student-athletes to join her in the Fellowship program. Soon enough, Elani joined Kiera as a Fellow, and together, they championed inclusivity through campus-wide events, both celebrating the matches on campus and raising awareness and money for Team IMPACT. “This allowed for the student-athletes and community to see how important Team IMPACT is to our campus and allowed for the community to gain a greater understanding of the program and why our athletic department is gaining a greater relationship with the organization,” she said. With Kiera and Elani’s leadership and the support of the St. Mike’s community, three more student-athletes are now in their first year of the Team IMPACT fellowship program, following the legacy of student-athlete leadership with real-world impact.
Though these awards recognize the work these student-athletes have done in the past, we know their competitive nature and drive to make a difference mean this is just the beginning of the impact Minnesota, St. Mike’s, and Macalester will have with Team IMPACT as their unifying vision.
For Kiera, Team IMPACT is about so much more than athletics. “Team IMPACT allows for our student-athletes to have a greater understanding of the sport that they play. Both on and off the field, Team IMPACT shows our athletes that they can constantly be making a difference in the community,” she said. The matches on her campus remind her—and so many others—why they started playing sports in the first place and the impact they can have when they work together toward a shared goal, making them better people and stronger athletes. This year, St. Mike’s had more matches on campus than ever before, which, Sarah said, led directly to successes on the field of competition. “Team IMPACT played a crucial role in our unprecedented athletic season as multiple teams made playoffs and had historic seasons,” she said. “Having our matches by our sides throughout the incredible year we had has us excited to see what more we can accomplish with them in the future.”
For Theo, there are two goals in mind for Macalester: to bring together families involved with Team IMPACT in his community and to make Team IMPACT an integral part of what it means to be an athlete at Macalester. “This award means a lot to us as a recognition of what we’ve done so far and is strong encouragement for the potential of what we have to make happen in the coming years,” he said.
To every Fellow who continues to go the extra mile for our mission: thank you. You are the heartbeat of Team IMPACT. Your compassion, your energy, and your belief in the power of team to change lives make everything we do possible.
To the 2025 Campus of the Year award winners: you’ve set the bar. The University of Minnesota, St. Michael’s College, and Macalester College’s commitment to inclusion, leadership, and community exemplifies what it means to be a true Team IMPACT Campus of the Year.