The National Junior College Athletic Association’s Region 19 — which contains 26 two-year faculties in New Jersey, Delaware and japanese Pennsylvania — is proud of its women’s sports alternatives. During the 2024-2025 tutorial 12 months, 999 feminine student-athlete individuals throughout 10 sports, fielding a complete of 104 women’s groups. This is a big enhance from 855 feminine student-athletes throughout the 2021-2022 faculty 12 months (a 17% enhance in feminine participation throughout the area).
But our work just isn’t completed. Region 19 has accepted earmarked funding to advertise ladies in sports throughout the upcoming tutorial 12 months. These funds will particularly go to internet hosting a Region 19 National Girls and Women in Sports Day celebration in early February 2026, honoring feminine student-athletes from throughout the area.
Additionally, the significance of supporting ladies in neighborhood faculty intercollegiate sports is extra very important than ever. This help not solely fosters gender equality but additionally brings a large number of benefits to student-athletes, neighborhood faculties and the broader larger schooling ecosystem. Here are some key benefits:
Empowerment and confidence constructing: Participation in sports empowers ladies by boosting their shallowness and confidence. Engaging in aggressive sports helps feminine student-athletes develop a robust sense of self-image, self-worth and resilience. These qualities are invaluable each on and off the sector or courtroom, contributing to their private {and professional} development.
Academic success: Studies have proven that student-athletes usually carry out higher academically in comparison with their non-athlete friends. The self-discipline, time administration and goal-setting expertise discovered by way of sports can translate into higher tutorial efficiency. The student-athlete inhabitants at Passaic County Community College in New Jersey had practically 1 / 4 level larger cumulative GPA than the final pupil inhabitants for the 2024-2025 tutorial 12 months. Supporting ladies in sports ensures they’ve entry to those benefits, serving to them excel of their research.
Health and well-being: Regular bodily exercise is essential for sustaining good well being. Women who take part in sports usually tend to lead lively existence, lowering their threat of persistent illnesses equivalent to weight problems, diabetes and coronary heart illness later in life. Additionally, sports can enhance psychological well being by lowering stress, nervousness and despair.
Leadership and teamwork expertise: Sports present a superb platform for creating management and teamwork expertise. Female student-athletes be taught to work collaboratively, talk successfully and lead by instance. These expertise are extremely transferable and may improve their profession prospects and neighborhood involvement.
Breaking stereotypes and selling gender equality: Supporting ladies in intercollegiate sports challenges conventional gender roles and stereotypes. It promotes gender equality by demonstrating that girls can excel in all areas, together with athletics. This shift in notion can encourage future generations of ladies to pursue their passions with out limitations.
Community and institutional benefits: When neighborhood faculties help women’s sports applications, they foster a way of pleasure and unity throughout the establishment and the encircling neighborhood. At Passaic County Community College (PCCC), our women’s volleyball program has deliberate and hosted quite a few volleyball clinics geared towards center and highschool college students to advertise a way of neighborhood round sports. Successful sports applications can appeal to extra college students, increase faculty spirit and improve the faculty’s status. Additionally, they’ll create alternatives for neighborhood engagement and help.
Scholarships and profession alternatives: Participation in neighborhood faculty intercollegiate sports can open doorways to scholarships and switch/profession alternatives for feminine athletes. At PCCC, our feminine student-athletes have transferred to bachelor’s-degree-granting establishments to proceed their tutorial and athletic careers at establishments equivalent to Saint Elizabeth University, Centenary University, William Paterson University, Montclair State University, and extra. Many faculties and universities provide athletic scholarships, which might make larger schooling extra accessible. Furthermore, the abilities and experiences gained by way of sports might be beneficial belongings in varied profession paths.
Supporting ladies in neighborhood faculty intercollegiate sports is not only about selling athletic excellence; it’s about empowering ladies, fostering tutorial success, enhancing well being and selling gender equality.
By investing in women’s sports applications, neighborhood faculties can create a optimistic and lasting influence on their college students and the broader neighborhood. Let’s proceed to champion and help our feminine athletes, guaranteeing they’ve the alternatives and sources they should not solely survive however thrive.