Jenna Schwark

Classroom

Jenna Schwark is majoring in finance with a minor in accounting. She is expected to graduate in December 2011. Her cumulative grade point average is 3.46. She has been a member of the Missouri State Dean’s List three times and the Missouri Valley Conference Academic Honor Roll in 2008 and 2009. She received the Missouri Valley Conference Commissioner’s Academic Excellence Award (2009) and was a member of the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete first team (2010) and the CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine All-District first team (2010).

Character

Schwark serves as the softball team representative for the Missouri State Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), where she has demonstrated an appreciation for the well-being of her university and the local community through the organization’s service efforts, including benefiting families in financial need and interacting with youth in southwest Missouri. She is trustworthy and her teammates look up to her for her leadership both on the field and in the classroom. Her coaches feel like she is another coach on the field—selfless and versatile enough to play wherever she is needed most.

Community

Through the SAAC, Schwark helps plan, organize and lead various community service programs on the MSU campus and the Springfield community. The SAAC is organized to encourage student-athletes to bring any issues related to their welfare to the attention of their team’s representative. The mission of the SAAC is to support and encourage each student-athlete toward achieving his/her best performance academically, athletically and socially. As part of the Adopt-A-Family program, Schwark participated in MSU softball’s effort to provide support to those Springfield area families in need during the holiday season. Each year the SAAC asks every student-athlete to donate at least $1.00.  These donations are used to purchase Christmas gifts for families or children that otherwise would not have gifts during the holiday season. With the Adopt-A-Street program, she participated in efforts to clean and restore various streets on and around campus. Other volunteer projects include: Ozarks Food Harvest (food bank), Halloween in the Halls (safe trick or treating for children), Character Education Day (informing school kids about character-related issues), Just Read Program (reading to school kids), MSU Softball Breast Cancer Awareness and the MSU softball free youth clinics. Her total community service/volunteer contribution is roughly 16-20 hours per semester.

Competition

As a junior, Schwark was an All-Missouri Valley Conference first team outfielder. She is a three-year starter with 133 career starts entering her senior year. She is MSU’s active leader in hits (126), runs scored (67), RBIs (55) and batting average (.313) entering her final collegiate season. She was the toughest MVC player to strike out in conference play in 2010, fanning just one time for every 15.9 at-bats. She clubbed a career-best seven home runs as a junior to help MSU tie the school record for team homers in a single season. She led the team in RBIs (30), walks (19), batting average (.358) and slugging percentage (.535) and ranked fourth in the MVC in hitting.