Spencer (center, with whistle) and the Grassroot Hoyas

Tyler Spencer (GRD `09), a 23-year-old, recent alum of Georgetown’s graduate school, was awarded a 2009 Rhodes Scholarship along with 31 other American students on Sunday. Among the achievements he was recognized for was his creation of Grassroot Hoyas—a Georgetown varsity-athlete run soccer program for D.C. students which helped spread safe sex knowledge.

“Using the power of sports to fight HIV in D.C. happens in three ways,” Spencer told the Voice earlier this year. “One, you use the role model status of athletes to make that connection with the kids. Two, you use sports in our actual curriculum. We’ve taken a didactic curriculum that you usually just go into classrooms and teach kids and turned it into competitive activities that teach key messages. And thirdly, we play sports with the kids aside from the lessons that we teach.”

He said got the idea from working with Grassroot Soccer, a similar program, in South Africa. When he came to Georgetown’s graduate school and became a heavyweight crew team member, he recruited 40 fellow student atheletes to work three hours a week at Grassroot Hoyas in D.C. The program, he said, was a big hit with the kids, and many of their classmates clambered to get into the program, too.

Spencer is also the head coach for the National Deaf Tennis Team and a Morris Udall Scholar. He was accepted into a Master’s program at Harvard earlier this year.

Confused as to how Spencer taught safe sex practices at a soccer program? Check out this video from thegrassrootproject.

It’s a wonderful day in Georgetown’s neighborhood!

While Georgetown’s town-gown relations can get pretty testy, according to researchers at Westfield State College, GU is actually one of the best neighbors in the country [PDF].  Georgetown made their “Best Neighbor” honor roll in their recent survey of colleges and universities.

The presentation, “Saviors of Our Cities: A Survey of Best College and University Civic Partnerships” emphasizes that the current state of the economy makes the relationships between universities and their surroundings even more important than ever before.

They ranked universities that they felt “demonstrated…long-standing cooperative efforts with community leaders to rehabilitate the cities around them, to influence community revitalization and cultural renewal, and to encourage economic expansion of the local economy, urban development and community service.”

While Georgetown didn’t earn a spot in the top 25, we did make the honor roll.  The honor role highlights over 100 colleges and universities that “figured prominently in lengthy cooperative efforts with community leaders to rehabilitate the cities around them.”

Georgetown’s Vice President of Student Affairs Todd Olson cited programs run through the Center for Social Justice, such as business consulting with non-profits, direct service and tutoring and working with local jails and prisons as evidence of Georgetown’s commitment to the local community.

“Across the city and region there’s a lot that we do really well,” Olson said. “There are a lot of needs in this community. We need to continue looking around and keep building those connections. We haven’t finished that work, but I believe we have a laudable track record.”

Much of Georgetown’s community service is created through student-run initiatives, such as Grassroot Hoyas, a student-founded and run group that goes into D.C. schools to promote AIDS awareness.

“What I admire most about Georgetown is its deep commitment to social justice,” Grassroot Hoyas founder Tyler Spencer said. “While so many students volunteer in amazing ways around the world, Grassroot Hoyas has helped us realize that we can and should work to solve problems that exist right in our backyard.”