Lehigh's Erica Prosser is a catalyst for social change.

The hardwood floor that the Lehigh University men and women’s basketball teams play on had been transplanted from Stabler Arena into Rauch Field House. It was odd to see a basketball court stationed in the center of an indoor track and field location, but the arena was being rented out. The Barnum and Bailey circus was in town.  It was October of 2007 and the first practice of the season. The veterans were excited to officially start while the freshmen were nervous and afraid of the unknown. The whistle blew and everyone stopped. Head coach Sue Troyan turned to newbie Erica Prosser and corrected her. After a few seconds, the drill resumed save one person. Troyan had turned around only to find tears streaming down Prosser’s face. She was just a freshman then, in her first practice as a Mountain Hawk. This was before she was named the 2009 Patriot League Player of the Year. This was before she led her team to their first Patriot League Championship since 1997.

                  “I’m a crier,” Prosser admits. “I take things so personally. I think that’s why I have this desire to make as big of an impact as I can.” This is what motivates Prosser. To make things better and improve the lives of others around her. The same way she’s helped develop the Lehigh women’s basketball program from a 21-37 record in the two seasons before her arrival, to a 44-20 in the two seasons since she has been there. This includes a 21-7 record in Patriot League play and two banners hanging from the rafters in Stabler Arena; one for the 2009 Patriot League Championship and one for birth in the 2009 NCAA Tournament. “What she’s done on the basketball court, she’s proven herself as one of the premier players in our league and that’s changed the face of our program,” Troyan said. “The talent and skill level that she brings has elevated our program and the players around her.” Prosser is a player who leads by example in everything that she does. It is the work ethic that is behind both her individual and team success. It is her 3.51 cumulative GPA. It is her captainship and her camaraderie. It is her competitive nature and passion; something that has driven her to take on a leadership role within Student Athletes Leading Social Change, a new endeavor Prosser has sought out to change the lives of others. She has become the voice among 30 different members from schools across the nation and the executive representative for Lehigh.

                  Last spring, Prosser applied to become involved in the new organization, which was launched in 2009 by the Janssen Sports Leadership Center. Lehigh is affiliated through its Athletics Leadership Academy, making it one of 11 universities across the nation with this kind of initiative, including its birthplace at the University of North Carolina. Six years ago, Jeff Janssen was a sports psychologist at the University of Arizona. His vision was to increase the value of the intangible part of sports, from leadership and team building to mental toughness. He became heavily interested in the role that these characteristics played in building successful college programs and founded the Sports Leadership Center. He believed that if he could work with the smart and talented student athletes from these schools, get them together and connect them through a common goal, great things could happen. Student Athletes Leading Social Change is the first step. “SALSC is an opportunity to help people explore potential career interests down the road and to actually make a difference and do something. Student-athletes rarely get a chance to do that because of their busy schedules,” Janssen said. “The thing that fires me up about this is that if Erica can do this at 21 years of age, she’s got 40 or 50 more years of her life to do bigger and better things because she’ll gain so much confidence and so much purpose in this trip, that it’ll only motivate her to do more.”

                  The proposed initiative was to adopt villages in Kenya to help lift them out of poverty. This “Adopt a Village” program was one of many local, national, and international proposals that were voted on by committee members and student-athlete participants. “When I read Jeff’s proposal, I Emailed him right away and said ‘Yes! This is right up my alley!” said Prosser, who is an African Studies major. “My whole life I’ve been interested in the slave trade and slavery in America and the civil rights movement.” She imagines her life after college being a human rights activist. “I’m most interested in healthcare related problems, the basic denial of any type of healthcare, no hospitals or doctors, no facilities in most of rural Africa. It stems from the government not providing those services. If the United States can put pressure on foreign governments, African governments, to provide services as much as they can, I think that would solve a lot of problems. Simple illnesses that kill people over there just shouldn’t if they have the right access to the right medicines, the education and preventative care. There are basic needs that people in African countries just don’t have. I want to be an advocate for those being oppressed and victimized.”

                  The mission for the Adopt a Village program is to alleviate the poverty situation in Kenya by constructing new schools, an adequate healthcare system, clean water and sanitation and alternative income sources. Current and former student-athletes will be working closely with the African villagers, which will have a sense of pride and ownership toward their development, something that will carry on for years to come. SALSC will be working in conjunction with the reputable Free the Children and Me to We charities, which will provide students with a planned and detailed itinerary for their week’s stay in Kenya, as well as collect all the funds for the project and ensure the safety of travelers.

                  It costs roughly $8,500 to build one school in Kenya. It costs another $3,000 in travel expenses for just one person. The University of Michigan has already raised $18,000 for SALSC, a small portion of the $80,000 raised at their annual Mock Rock fundraiser, where different teams perform a variety of skits for their campus audience. This year nearly 4,000 were in attendance and donated. This will allow them to send three student-athletes and construct one school.  In order for Lehigh to send Erica, it will cost nearly $12,000; a goal she is determined to not only reach, but surpass.

                  “I’m passionate about helping people, but that seems so generic,” Prosser said. “But that’s really what it is to me. If I have something to give, I want to be able to give it, whether it’s time or money or energy or knowledge. I want to be able to share that with as many people as I can.” Prosser believes that society today is very self-centered with a heavy emphasis on the individual’s advancement rather than the progression of society as a whole. She pointed out this problem even exists in school, where the end goal is no longer about learning, but rather how to get A’s and stand out from the person sitting next to you, she said.

                  This is where Prosser is different. Not only does her passion for helping and contributing set her apart, it is her dedication to action. In a world where talking has gained more value and popularity than doing, Prosser’s commitment to become an activist for change within the community is just another way this young woman is leading by example. “Not that Africa is going to be for everyone, but you need to give back to your community in some way. Whether it is your local community, national community or global community. It is essential that we share. It’s a basic principle that you learn in kindergarten,” she laughed, “But we need to be better at sharing with one another. I want to be that example of giving whatever I can.”

                   “This is an involved process. As much as Erica has learned already, her understanding of what it takes to create change on a global level will be greatly enhanced when she is able to reflect back on her experience. Paying attention to policies and procedures we didn’t even know existed and inspiring action by more than just one person are all necessary for this to work,” said mentor and staff adviser Julie Sterrett. “One thing she’s learning a lot about right now is how to empower other people and engage other people because she can’t do this project by herself. She can be the catalyst and the organizational leader at Lehigh, but ultimately she’s going to need help from other people, and I think she’ll be the first to admit that.”

                  Prosser admits, “I depend a lot on other people.  Everyone wants to be an individual and do her own thing and say ‘I can survive by myself’ but I’m the opposite. I think it’s very important to have people around you and to be able to depend on them. So I make it a priority to do that for other people.” She is very adamant about these beliefs of dependency. It’s what made her transition into college life as a Division One student-athlete that much smoother. Not an experienced traveler and being four-and-a-half hours from her Pittsburgh home was a huge adjustment; one that required finding herself without the safety net of her friends and family. She admits that the idea of forming new relationships with people scares her because it takes a lot of work and sacrifice and it’s uncomfortable at first. But perhaps this explains exactly why she holds on so closely to the people she does know, and that her belief in humanity far exceeds her belief in oneself.

                  “People are naïve to think they’re independent because really, no one does anything by themselves. You’re always doing something that’s in connection with someone else. Watching TV, reading a book, they were all established before you were, and you are able to use them because of someone else,” Prosser said. “That’s why humanity was created: to be in communion with one another and be connected and intertwined. We are dependent creatures.”

                  But if there is one thing that Prosser believes in more than the positive potential of a community, it is the idea of change. It is her vision of a better tomorrow and her action as a catalyst today. “That experience alone, going to a third world country and seeing just how mind-blowingly different their lives are in comparison to the US, that experience alone is going to be worth it,” said Janssen. “Knowing that she is contributing to hopefully totally change the culture of the village, to lift them out of poverty levels, empowering women, mandate that the girls go to schools, knowing she’s a part of that has got to be tremendously gratifying. “  Prosser said it was imperative that people, from professors to policy makers, emphasize the importance of women in the global society. Girls drop out of school in Africa or in most cases; boys are the ones who attend. “They need to know that education is an option for them and going on to secondary education is important. Hopefully by seeing me and other female group members, they’ll be encouraged that it is a possibility for them. Even though we come from different places,” Prosser said. “We’re all reaching for the same thing.”

                  The SALSC initiative has hit the ground running since its birth last spring and more money is starting to get raised. “As a sustainable organization, this could be something that continues from year to year,” Sterrett said. “The project will change from year to year but it will continually allow for student athletes to get involved and learn about leadership on a whole new level. It ties directly into what we do here, which is help people realize that they are a part of something bigger than themselves so they have responsibility on a greater level. One person can truly make a difference.”

                  Sound familiar? It should.  Gandhi once said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” This is Prosser’s favorite quote. It’s her favorite because she believes in it wholeheartedly where most people laugh at is overuse and worn-down value. “People just throw it around and they don’t know what it means and I think there’s a lot of those kinds of quotes in the world. Clichés,” she said. “It’s been this revelation like ‘Wow, this is what we need to do!’ We can’t just say it anymore. We need to go out and do something, anything. At least make an effort. Even if you fail, you’re still trying.”

                  When asked if one person could really change the world, she said, “How many people have there been that have made huge, huge changes?” A flip through the history books will soon reveal the likes of Mother Teresa, Princess Diana, Martin Luther King, Jr., William Shakespeare, Nelson Mandela, and the list goes on and on. And those are just the people we know about. “Of course, they have their tribe behind them, but essentially, they’re the leader of the pack.” When asked what she would say to people who just don’t believe in this kind of thinking, Prosser stopped smiling, looked straight ahead and said, “Watch me.”