This feature originally appeared in the 2023 Summer edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.
 

 
Being a student-athlete at Cal often opens up a world beyond the classroom and playing field. The University has a rich history of groups and individuals standing up, often sitting in, and advocating for those whose voices are quieter when left to speak up alone.
 
Some student-athletes discover this passion when they step on campus and others choose the University knowing it's an institution that fosters this advocacy.
 
For Maya Griffin of the California women's soccer team, it was a match made in heaven.
 
Griffin, who's set to enter her junior season with the Golden Bears this fall, began lending a hand to the Bay Area community at the exact same time she began lending her foot to the team as a freshman.
 
For the past two years, Griffin has worked with Strong Girls United – a nonprofit organization that aims to empower and encourage girls to be more interested in sports, get more acclimated with different sports, and develop mental and physical skills that will aid young women who decide to pursue athletics at the next level.
 
"Working with [Griffin] was amazing," said Lani Silversides, founder and executive director of Strong Girls United. "She was so organized and energetic. She was deeply committed to impacting girls in the community. I was so impressed with how she took on the leadership role, managed all the communication and organization, juggled her own academics and athletic career, all the while inspiring the girls in the community."
 
An organization that was founded on the East Coast, Griffin has taken the lead on piloting the program's first West Coast branch. She has done so by working with Summit K2 Middle School in Richmond, a school with a predominantly minority enrollment. As a young Black woman, this project was especially near to her heart.
 
"Being that it was the pilot program and the first time the organization has done anything outside of the East Coast, it took many months of planning and has probably been my biggest project so far," Griffin said. "It's been a very touching experience, especially since there's such a large minority population. They get to see someone who looks like them that plays a sport at the No. 1 public university and know that it's possible for them to do the same."
 
The months of planning amounted to an incredible six-week program for these potential student-athletes. It featured a new curriculum that had to be adapted from their usual programming because Strong Girls United had not yet worked with middle school-aged children or with a school with a large minority population. With the help of some of her teammates, Griffin went straight to work rolling out the new program.
 
"There were a lot of changes that had to be made to fit the demographic of the K2 students and make it more relatable to them," Griffin said. "From mindful activities to physical activities, and workshops that they do. And once a week we got to go up there and implement the curriculum in person, which they really loved. Having myself and some of my teammates there, who are just the right age to connect to them and serve as role models, was really rewarding for all of us.
 
"At the very end of the six weeks we had a feedback forum where we asked them about their experience and an overwhelming amount of the girls said they felt more confident after going through the program. They felt like they were more a part of the team, they were more interested in sports, and they were more entuned with their emotions, so that was very nice to see."
 
Griffin's initiative to bring Strong Girls United to the West Coast is just one of the many community engagements she has participated in since arriving in 2021. She also spends time with the KIPP Bridge Academy, where she gets to be a positive role model and bring a college presence to a predominately minority group of students in Oakland.
 
Griffin is also just wrapping up an internship with the San Francisco Giants' Women's Employee Resource Group (ERG), which seeks to provide a platform that encourages all employees to support women and encourage their personal and professional growth. When that internship ended, she wasted no time finding another within the organization and is now in a new role within the operations department where she will be helping run the Junior Giants League in Richmond.
 
 "I play soccer, so I grew up being the only Black girl on my team all the way up until college. I'm blessed to have 14 other Black teammates on my team now," Griffin said. "Going from zero all my life to 14 now has definitely been an eye-opening experience. Coming to Cal, I finally saw the difference and noticed the diversity that was lacking from my childhood teams and how important that is for young athletes.
 
"From a young age, my mom instilled in me the importance of giving back to those that are less fortunate than us and using the gifts that God gave us to touch others. Now that I realize all that I've been missing, I need to give that back so girls can know that they can play whatever it is that they want to play, and not to be discouraged because there aren't people that look like you on your team. It's important to me to be that role model, that picture that they can see that tells them that they can do it too."
 
The Rancho Cucamonga native was awarded the Walter A. Haas Jr. Community Service Award at the Cal Athletic Study Center's academic honors luncheon in May. She was one of three recipients of the award that honors a student-athlete's outstanding contribution to community service.
 
"I was definitely honored and surprised to receive the award," Griffin said. "I never really take time to reflect on the things that I do. I'm always just 'go, go, go' so I felt really blessed to even be nominated for something like that, let alone win it. A lot of what I do is to help better the community and help those that I'm serving. I didn't even realize that there was an award like this, so I was very humbled to accept it."