Why It Matters: The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation’s (CSF) Collegiate Sportsmen and Women’s Coalition (CSWC) seeks to educate young adults from diverse interests and backgrounds about the importance of hunting, angling, trapping, and recreational shooting to fish and wildlife conservation while also providing them with hands-on education in how to effectively engage in the policy process to protect these traditions.
Highlights:
- CSF is now expanding the Collegiate Sportsmen and Women’s Coalition to additional colleges and universities across the country.
- The Coalition provides college students with the unique opportunity to engage with other sportsmen and women with a wide variety of outdoor interests while also providing them with the tools to begin effectively engaging with the public policy process.
- Through this, the Coalition aims to educate the outdoor sporting community’s next generation of conservation leaders.
On March 29, the Collegiate Sportsmen and Women’s Coalition at Clemson University was approved and formalized by the University and is now able to officially register as a student organization on campus. This addition to the CSWC network comes after many months of working with Clemson students, particularly Helen Bailey, who is the daughter of Maryland Sportsmen’s Caucus Co-Chair Senator Jack Bailey. “As students, we are the future advocates for hunting, angling, trapping and conservation and I am excited for the professional development and educational opportunities that will come with CSWC,” said Ms. Bailey.
The Clemson Collegiate Sportsmen and Women’s Coalition is modeled after coalitions already active at Mississippi State University, the University of Mississippi, and Louisiana State University and provides a new opportunity to engage college students in supporting our outdoor sporting heritage. The Collegiate Coalition is supported and managed by the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation in efforts related to policy education and engagement, as well as the recruitment, retention, and reactivation of sportsmen and women. CSF is looking forward to visiting Clemson to speak to these students about the conservation and the public policy process in the coming weeks.
The Collegiate Sportsmen and Women’s Coalition aims to ensure that the next generation of conservation leaders have the tools they need to make a positive impact on the outdoor sporting community both now and in their future careers. Clemson CSWC Co-President Kendall Prevette echoed this, saying “I want to go into conservation law because I want to ensure that my children and grandchildren have the same opportunities for hunting, fishing, and enjoying the outdoors that I did growing up. CSWC and CSF give us great opportunities to learn more about the legislation surrounding this and give us a chance to make an impact.”
A few states away, and just a day prior, the Louisiana State University Coalition held their first meeting on March 28, and had over 20 students in attendance. Here, students got to hear from CSF’s PJ Carleton and Isabella Mucci as well as our friends at Ducks Unlimited about the importance of policy engagement for members of the outdoor sporting community.
CSF looks forward to continuing to support the Clemson and LSU Coalitions and continuing to bring the Collegiate Sportsmen and Women’s Coalition to other schools around the country as we seek to impact and educate the next generation of conservation leaders. Please reach out to Isabella Mucci, CSF’s Collegiate Sportsmen and Women’s Coalition Coordinator, to explore bringing CSWC to a campus near you.
