CMIT Lacrosse's Fall '19 Social

"Being here together...this feels right,"is what Roshni Pawar '22 had to say as she looked out at the various women in the high school's media center that Saturday evening. These women were members of the "CMIT Women's Lacrosse Program".

After a month of tirelessly planning, Becky Takang '21 in collaboration with the other varsity captains, hosted the entire women's lacrosse program for a night of team building and bonding on November 23, 2019. Since the beginning of the academic year, the varsity captains have been coaching and preparing our middle school team for their transition into varsity play next year. To reward the middle school team's hard efforts, our captains wanted to host a fall social for the middle school players. The evening started off with explaining CMIT Academy High School's expectations of the incoming 9th graders. We then spoke of the team behavioral and academic expectations of every player who enters the lacrosse program. We emphasized our "Ubuntu" philosophy which is rooted in the belief that "I am because we are." We further stressed the pillars that strengthen our "Ubuntu" philosophy which includes "Commitment", "Integrity", "Perseverance", and "Sisterhood."

A "Q & A" panel between our freshmen varsity players and the incoming 9th graders capped off the evening's administrative tasks before our captains led school tours and our sit down dinner together. The remainder of the night consisted of team bonding exercises from speed dating, cup stacking, cookie face competitions, lax charades, and more. In the spirit of sisterhood, teams were randomized to pair up varsity players and middle school players. Under the unwavering leadership of Roshni Pawar '22, and her team — Tatiana Emeruwa '23, Gabriella Solomon '21, and Karla Berrios '24 — swept the competition winning all but one team event.

This first meeting with our varsity team and the middle school club team was a very blissful experience. With players from 6th to 12th grade, there was an omnipresent feeling of transparency. By bringing every single player in our program together, our middle school players were able to see who they could become while our high school players were able to see how far they've traveled. It was a night of reflection and optimism. We could see how far we've come as a program while realizing how much farther we could go.

Our program's mission has always been to improve accessibility, develop inclusiveness, create opportunities, and foster diversity for the women's game and on this particular night we were able to move one step closer in accomplishing that mission.