By Jeremy Garner
I order my lavender coffee at the Foundery coffe pub and scanning for the Chair of the National Association for Intercollegiate Athlete’s (NAIA) Association of Student Athletes (ASA). She smiles and waves at me. Her MacBook is open. She’s not wasting a minute of time while she waiting. I sit, shaking her hand. I can’t help but match her smile.
Sunny hair and a sunny disposition, despite having had class and swim practice before coming to Foundery for our interview. Anne Weber-Callahan is a junior in Furniture Design with a minor in Historic Preservation.
On top of classes and swim team,Weber-Callahan is the chair of the NAIA ASA, the people who, according to her “listen to the legislation, and speak and vote with the voice of the 65,000 athletes that belong to the NAIA.”
As chair, she takes two Sundays every month to go out of town and talk about collegiate athletic legislation. Anne intends to use the position of chair to pass legislation that will give athletes a mandatory day off.
Still, artisan coffee, collegiate athletic legislation, art school– one of these things is not like the others. It is not everyday art student get hands on with paper work. That’s exactly why Weber-Callahan accepted the position.
“It’s not an artsy thing,” she explained. Not only does it look good on a resume, she’s also gained skills on communicating in professional situations to different age groups. That’s good in any industry, including the arts.
Two of her fellow swimmers entered the Foundery, both freshman, Keaton Williams, an Industrial design major from Apex, North Carolina, and Miles Kredich, a Graphic Design major.
There is some joking from them about how Weber-Callahan’s cool enough to have a profile piece. Weber-Callahan groans, but Williams jumps right in with some words of praise, said Anne is “a leader, motivated, funny, outgoing and talkative.”
Kredich feeding off Williams, said “I think of myself as having a lot of energy. I think Anne might top that.” This got a chuckle from everybody.
Her coach, Bill Pilczuk and senior Swim Captain, Cadie Crow, told Weber-Callahan she was nominated because she’s “openly opinionated enough to speak on the behalf of students.” Or, as Keaton said, “it’s because you can put words together.”
It’s certainly benefitted her with a number of tasks she handles on any given day.
