Making an impact: Gianna Aiello and Charlee Arthur serve as Team IMPACT fellows

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Brown women's basketball sophomores Gianna Aiello and Charlee Arthur are making an impact off the court as the two are fellows for Team IMPACT. The sophomores are looking to build Brown's partnership with the organization knowing how beneficial it is for not only those paired with the teams but for members of the teams as well.

Team IMPACT, a national non-profit organization, has developed a unique multiyear program that matches children facing serious illness and disability with college athletic teams across the country. Based on a clinical model, Team IMPACT guides a symbiotic relationship between teams and children focused on socialization, empowerment, and resilience.

Both Aiello and Arthur have been involved with organizations to support children in sports and during their first year on College Hill, the women's basketball team at Brown was paired with Charlee Worcester from Team IMPACT. The drive to make a difference and being paired with a child through Team IMPACT helped the two want to get more involved.

"I did similar stuff to Team IMPACT in high school, promoting inclusivity with the Special Olympics," said Aiello "I knew it was something I was passionate about coming into college and Coach Ugo [Nwaigwe] asked for people to be leaders on the team we really enjoyed doing it and wanted to be more involved."

"When the fellowship was brought up by our coaches we applied and were able to talk with some of Team Impact's administrators and it was really cool to see their passion which just sealed the deal," said Arthur. "We also wanted to get involved because there are a lot of teams at Brown that just didn't know what Team IMPACT was and we thought it would be really cool to be involved in that."

Serving as fellows, Aiello and Arthur serve as ambassadors for Team IMPACT on Brown's campus. The two act as go-betweens for teams that have questions about how to get involved or what they might need to do after getting matched. They also promote the benefits of getting a team involved with the organization.

"Last semester we brought on a bunch of teams to get on the waitlist, and we have had multiple teams get matched," said Arthur. "The main thing is involvement, getting more teams involved and spreading awareness. Our goal is to eventually have some sort of partnership between Brown and Team IMPACT.

"We go to all of the signings for the other teams and if another team has questions, they can ask either of us and if we don't know the answer, we can ask our contacts and Team IMPACT to get an answer pretty quickly."

One of the events that Arthur and Aiello have put on to bring more attention to Brown's involvement with Team IMPACT was an awareness game at a volleyball match this past fall. At the game, a few of the teams who have a match attended the game with their teammate and the information provided spurred an interest with Brown's volleyball program.

"We planned the match with volleyball and did an awareness game at one of their matches earlier this year because they were very interested in Team IMPACT but didn't know how to get involved and wanted to know how to get on the waitlist," said Arthur. "We connected them with [Program Manager, Student-Athlete Support and Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives] Vicki [Mealer-Flowers] and she helped them get that process started."

Having fellows on campus has allowed two students from Brown focus on making Team IMPACT more student-athlete driven than coach driven.

"At Brown the athlete community is pretty close. A lot of us are at each other's games," said Aiello. "With the women's soccer team, a few of the girls asked me about it and I talked with them. They are really interested, and they spoke with their coach to get signed up. I think our job as fellows is to spread the work and then get information to the right people."

As fellows, Aiello and Arthur we able to go to a summit for Team IMPACT over the summer, meeting other fellows and getting to know people involved with the organization outside of sports.

"We were able to work on leadership qualities and we met all of the other fellows from around the area," said Aiello. "We also got to meet with other families and people in the Team IMPACT organization, so you really got to understand the mission of the organization a lot more."

"We got to meet the biggest donors, so it was really cool to see people involved who are outside of sports," said Arthur. "Also, seeing all of the fellows from the Ivy League, Penn State, Maryland and other schools was really cool and athletes from other sports all there for one common cause."

With this being the second the year of the women's basketball team having Charlee as a member of the team, both Aiello and Arthur have seen Charlee open up more and they have also felt the impact for themselves.

"Knowing Charlee will be at our Christmas party or end of year party, or any team event is just cool to know that she is adding to the basketball family here," said Aiello.

"For me, I have been out with injury for so long that Charlee and I are buddies on the bench," said Arthur, "When I was interviewing for the fellowship, I said I know it helps her but it helps me more. I look forward to home games when we get to hangout on the bench and we have been able to develop a relationship that we will have for a long time."

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Making an impact: Gianna Aiello and Charlee Arthur serve as Team IMPACT fellows

Players Mentioned

Gianna Aiello

Charlee Arthur

Charlee Worcester

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