At their annual meeting on Friday, September 6th, the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition awarded a lifetime impact award to Dr. Clark Power, professor emeritus of liberal studies at Notre Dame and executive director of the Play Like a Champion Today Educational Series.

“I am deeply grateful to the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition for recognizing the work of so many in our Play Like a Champion family,” Power said in a release published by the organization on Sept. 12. “All children have a right to play and to reap the social, moral, and health benefits of belonging to a team with a caring coach and supportive peers. I am grateful to be a part of a nationwide movement to fight for inclusion and equity."

A professor at Notre Dame for 42 years, Power founded Play Like a Champion Today in 2006 to promote equity in youth sports. Since then, the organization has provided coaching education to 160,000 coaches, parents and officials and has grown to a network of over 250 affiliates. The organization has partnered with sports providers in underserved areas to help them promote inclusivity in their offerings, and has seen successful growth in sites like West Chicago’s North Lawndale Athletics and Recreation Association and Michiana Athletics and Recreation Association (MARA) in South Bend, Indiana.

In honor of Power’s work and his retirement from Notre Dame in June, the Center for Social Concerns and the Program of Liberal Studies will be co-sponsoring a symposium, “What do we owe our children? Educating for a just society.” The symposium will be held October 4th at Notre Dame, and will be focused on advancing “a justice-focused collective impact approach to ending child poverty.”

Power will provide the introductory address at 8:30 AM. The keynote address will be delivered at 9 AM by Sean Reardon, Professor of Poverty and Inequality in Education at Stanford University, who will speak on “Overcoming Poverty, Inequality and Racism: The Challenge Ahead.” The symposium will be held at the the Center for Social Concerns, followed by breakout discussions at 3:30 PM at the Initiative on Race and Resilience on the third floor of O'Shaughnessy Hall.

Interested parties are invited to RSVP to the Center for Social Concerns.

Originally published by Ryan Murphy at smacminor.nd.edu on September 26, 2024.