Myles Rice Wins Student-Athlete of the Year at the National Black Student-Athlete Summit

LOS ANGELES (May 25, 2023) – This past week, Washington State University’s Black Student-Athlete Association (BSAA) sent 14 student-athletes and three administrators to the national Black Student-Athlete Summit in Los Angeles, California. The Summit, held May 21-24 on the University of Southern California (USC) campus, focused on the professional development of student-athletes and staff, featured speakers, networking opportunities and a career fair to empower Black student-athletes.
 
During The Summit, Men’s Basketball student-athlete Myles Rice was chosen as a recipient of the BSA Summit Student-Athlete of the Year award. This award is presented to a student-athlete who best exemplifies the spirit of the BSA Summit and demonstrates excellence and modeling of the BSA Summit’s mission on campus and amongst their peers. This recognition follows the 2021 honors received by WSU BSAA, including Organization of the Year and Student-Athlete of the Year (former soccer student-athlete Kelis Barton).

It was also announced this week that WSU Athletics is partnering with Project Destined to provide Black student-athletes with real world commercial real estate training, mentoring, and networking opportunities. As one of nine schools selected to participate in the project, WSU Athletics will have the opportunity to provide Black student-athletes with tangible pathways into the world of commercial real estate, an industry that has historically lacked diversity and proved difficult to access for most underrepresented groups. Each semester, a select group of student-athletes will participate in training and mentoring while competing with other student-athlete teams in a Shark Tank Style Competition.

 

Ike Ukaegbu, Deputy Director of Athletics, stated, “The partnership between Project Destined and WSU Athletics will provide a transformational experience for our Black student-athletes. In addition to networking with some of the most successful commercial real estate executives and firms, student-athletes participating in the program will engage in experiential learning opportunities and gain a true understanding of how property investments work.”

 

Rice and administrator Janelle Nguyen presented “Cougs & Community: Building Belonging & Inclusivity through BSAA” at the Summit’s Research Symposium. This past year, Myles was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma…