Ambassadors

My name is Ashley Ball and I am a junior here at North Carolina Wesleyan College. I am from Rocky Mount and have lived here my whole life. I am a History and Secondary Education Major and have a 3.7 GPA. I have played tennis all three years that I have been here. We went through coaches and finally were blessed with Dominic Modise. I was sincerely touched by his strength, not just with tennis but with life. He is a great coach, mentor, and above all friend. To hear about his youth in South Africa, how he never played with tennis shoes, and ended up coming here to America where he played and coached college tennis, really made me think. I am also an honors student here and we have to write an honors thesis in order to graduate NCWC with honors. I am hoping to use your donations to go to South Africa with Coach Modise this summer and write my honors thesis about my experience there.

My name is Catherine Hood, and I am a junior at Rocky Mount Academy. I enjoy many sports, and I am an active member in a number of school and civic organizations. I have lived in Rocky Mount all my life and feel that I have been blessed with many opportunities. It is because of my own good fortune that I feel compelled to help others that are not so fortunate. I am particularly interested in bringing hope to a small town in South Africa that I learned about through North Carolina Wesleyan tennis coach, Dominic Modise. From Coach Modise I learned that tennis is one of the popular sport in South Africa, and it can also serve as a path out of poverty for some of those young people. I feel this is an organization I would like to become involved with, and I am very excited about the opportunities we can provide.

My name is Juliana Richardson. I am currently a sophomore at North Carolina Wesleyan College with a 3.94 GPA. I am a cross country runner and I started playing tennis for the school this year as well. I am highly active on campus through various clubs such as FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes), Refuge (a Christian organization), CAB (Campus Activities Board), and SAAC (Student Athletic Advisory Committee). I also work three jobs on campus and act as the co-president and school representative for SAAC, and I recently received the position of Vice President for our college’s SGA (Student Government Association). I have done several community service projects with groups on campus, as well as other groups in my home community and various groups from my high school. I thoroughly enjoy these projects and I am extremely excited about being part of the Tennis Shoes for Africa project. I feel that this project is a valuable with the potential to help hundreds of children in South Africa receive the simple clothing items that we take for granted. I look forward to the progression of the project and I hope that we are able to reach our goals through all of your many valuable donations.

My name is Meghan Herd. I am Junior at North Carolina Wesleyan College, where I am a Sociology major and English minor. I run cross county and play tennis for Wesleyan. I was a Student Ambassador for North Carolina Wesleyan, as well as a Peer Advisory Leader (P.A.L.). I am originally from Boulder, Colorado where I was very active in my community, especially within the youth community, where I served on various community advisory boards and participated in volunteer work. I am honored to be a significant part of the Tennis Shoes for Africa mission, where I can lend a helping hand to influence the life of young African children. I gladly accept the role of finding ways for the young children in Africa to be able to have the opportunity to be exposed to a variety of sports and recreation activities. I am also excited to work with my coach Dominic Modise to raise awareness and monetary funding for our efforts for South African children. I'm ecstatic that I have been chosen to be a part of this prestigious and valuable mission to help others in need.