PORTLAND, Ore.-Cole Garcia of men's rowing and Kaylie Loewen of volleyball participated in the 2016 West Coast Conference (WCC) Leadership Summit at the University of Portland in July. This annual meeting of Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) members representing all 10 WCC schools brought student-athletes together in an effort to collaborate on enhancing the student-athlete experience.

The summit kicked off with a presentation by the Portland Timbers' President of Business, Mike Golub. Golub shared his 25 years of experience in professional sports management with the student-athletes, emphasizing leadership and the need for team-building within every respective team.

The cohort later offered a helping hand at a local food bank where the student-athletes had the chance to give back to the community while building relationships with each other. This community service event allowed for student-athletes to get to know each other on a more personal level outside of a competitive environment. As Loewen recalled, "spending time with fellow student-athletes outside the court truly furthered a sense of community within the WCC."

The student-athletes then heard from University of Portland's own Dan McGinty, Director of the Dundon-Berchtold Institute for Moral Formation and Applied Ethics. McGinty encouraged the SAAC representatives to always work on being a better version of themselves and strive to be better than they were the day before.

Overall, Garcia described the weekend as, "an extraordinarily beneficial learning, personal development, and networking experience." He further stated, "we established valuable contacts throughout the WCC and collaborated on numerous issues facing the individual member schools and the conference as a whole."

The summit concluded with Garcia elected as the 2016-17 WCC SAAC Co-Chair, sharing the title with Scott Bohne of BYU's Men's Tennis team. The two student-athletes will be representatives of SAAC at the conference level, playing critical roles in WCC SAAC initiatives.

Back on Gonzaga's campus, Garcia will hold the position of SAAC President with Loewen as Secretary.

Both will help to kick off the 2016-17 school year with the annual GU SAAC retreat set for late August.