Silva elected VP of Cal Pac Student-Athlete Council

Cal Maritime's Women's Soccer player Emily Silva has been elected as the new Vice President of the Cal Pac Student-Athlete Council.

Silva will join her teammate Maddy Dack as the two representatives for Cal Maritime as each school in the conference is allowed up to two representatives.

"My goals are for the Cal Maritime SAC to be noticed and to be more involved in school topics," said Silva. "I've recently been working with the Triad to involve athletics. My personal goal is to bridge the gap between students and student-athletes as some say there is a stigma that student-athletes are treated differently, but that isn't the case. An idea that I had was doing a meet and greet with all of the cadets and students here on campus."

Silva and the rest of the SAC officers met via zoom to discuss some of their matters. They were able to set a one-word theme for the 2020-2021 school year of "Forward". The word choice comes from working together as one unified conference to endure and move through the trying times caused by the pandemic and social unrest.

Each institution agreed to set an on-campus goal to create initiatives with their own student-athlete leadership groups to move their teams ahead and make intentional improvements in various areas. The word will guide directions and decisions as the Cal Pac navigates the changing face of college sports while still looking to accomplish "Greater Things" as a league and individual schools.

"Some of the goals of the Cal Pac Student-Athlete Council (SAC) is to move forward," said the junior. "That is the word we chose as a whole group this year and it means that we are moving forward with racial justice, mental health, and a bunch of other topics."

Along with learning best-practices in campus group organization, leadership, and self-care mental health practices, the SAC assigned a sub-committee to draft a new student-athlete "Ideals Statement" which will be read aloud by team captains prior to all conference contests. The statement will declare the Cal Pac's continued devotion to the core values of the NAIA, but also state-specific ways each student-athlete is committed to living them out.

The Global Studies and Maritime Affairs major welcomes all students-athletes wanting to use their platform and give everyone a voice.

"Student-athletes are always welcome to come into our meetings. They don't have to be a sports representative. We have open meetings and are always open to new ideas. I got involved with the Student-Athlete Council because I love sports and I'm passionate about making a difference. As a student-athlete, I wanted to give everybody a voice on any issue they have."

The Cal Pac SAC meets monthly via video conference to communicate updates to and from the student-athletes regarding conference issues. The Council has legislative recommendation authority and places a representative of the Cal Pac on the NAIA Association of Student-Athletes