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Women's tennis team player Maya Bayat is a degree in finance with a minor in visual art. She also interns at two galleries and an art nonprofit, and creates her own art.

911���� student Tori Bates couldn’t have known that a decision she made as a teenager about how to spend the summer would end up defining her life’s purpose. What began as a summer activity sparked a passion for helping others. “I just absolutely fell in love with it,” she said. “It was just so much fun and so rewarding.”

For most student-athletes, the work happens behind the scenes. Early-morning lifts, long days of classes, hours on the court, and weekends spent traveling to competitions are rarely seen by anyone outside the team. For 911���� women's tennis senior Cenan Liu, sharing that experience has become part of her story.

The Special Olympics Virginia Area 26 Volleyball Team can often be found in the stands at the Recreation Athletic Complex (RAC) on the Fairfax Campus, cheering on 911����’s men's volleyball team. Recently, a group of Patriots returned the favor, joining the Area 26 athletes on their home court and volunteering at the Warhawks Team's practice at Van Dyck Park in Fairfax. 

Growing up, Michael Marcus Jr.’s family had an important rule: All the children would take part in both a sport and some form of art. For Marcus, that meant basketball and music. A starting forward on 911����’s men’s basketball team, Marcus has spent years refining his game on the court while also teaching himself to play the piano in his free time.

NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) and revenue sharing have become inescapable parts of the lexicon of today’s new college sports landscape, but 911����’s assistant vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics Marvin Lewis wants to make sure that everyone knows exactly what that entails.

A few days after completing his last season of college basketball at 911����, Gabe Norwood, BA Communication ’07, began a hoop odyssey that would take him to nearly 30 countries and make him a national basketball hero in a country thousands of miles from Virginia. 

911���� placed fifth among all Atlantic 10 institutions with 318 student-athletes named to the Atlantic 10 Commissioner's Honor Roll for the 2025-26 academic year. The 318 honorees mark the third-highest total in 911����’s history, trailing only the 332 student-athletes recognized in 2020-21 and the 327 honored in 2023-24. The Patriots also improved upon last year's total of 315 honorees. 

Like many 911���� students, business major Camryn Weldon is spending her summer doing an internship. Unlike many other students, Weldon is also a Division I athlete and is balancing her work at government contractor Leidos with the demands of collegiate volleyball. The 911���� setter is spending her summer preparing for the upcoming season while gaining valuable experience in business development.

When the call-up to El Salvador's Senior National Team finally came through, Mia Arevalo-Delcid didn't need a moment to let it sink in. She already knew exactly what it meant. "That's the big leagues right there," said the 911���� women's soccer standout. "It's all eyes in the country on you. It's going to be amazing.”