Miami Athletics Places Third in NCAA Team Works Community Service Competition
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The NCAA announced that University of Miami Athletics placed third among Division I programs in the 2025 NCAA Team Works Community Service Competition powered by Helper Helper.
Coastal Carolina earned first place honors in the competition. Miami was first among Power 4 institutions, with each of its 400-plus student-athletes participating in at least one community service activity. Miami previously captured the Division I crown three times (2018, 2022, 2024).
“We encourage a servant mindset at Miami, and I am immensely proud that our student-athletes continue to place among the top schools nationally in NCAA Team Works Community Service National Championship,” Vice President/Director of Athletics Dan Radakovich said. “I want to thank our head coaches as well as Shirelle Jackson, LaToya Farris and Jess Hurley from our student-athlete development staff for placing such a high emphasis on community involvement.”
NCAA Team Works, which coordinates community service efforts at NCAA championships, and Helper Helper, a volunteer management and tracking platform, launched the community service competition to recognize student-athletes and schools who give back to their communities. This was the 11th year of the competition, which ran September 15 through December 15, 2025, and is based on the number of service hours completed and the number of participating student-athletes. Helper Helper tracks the school participation data throughout the competition.
Miami’s community service efforts during the 2025 competition included its Pen Pal program matching more than 115 student-athletes with students at local elementary schools; a Day of Giving where the football team provided Thanksgiving meals to more than 20 families of Miami-Dade Foster and Adoptive Parent Association; a Team Impact Match, Dream on 3, and numerous trips to the Miami Rescue Mission to serve lunch.
“I am so proud of the community outreach completed by our Miami Hurricane student-athletes,” said Jackson, Miami’s Executive Associate Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Development. “Their dedication to service exemplifies what it truly means to represent the University of Miami, leading with compassion, and purpose. We are especially proud to have cultivated a culture of giving back to others, where service is not simply encouraged, but embedded into who we are. Watching our student-athletes invest their time and energy into uplifting our community reinforces that their greatest impact extends far beyond the field of competition.
“I remain grateful that Jessica Hurley’s leadership in this space continues to create diverse opportunities for our student-athletes to engage in our surrounding communities. She, along with our student-athletes make a difference.”
This year, student-athletes in NCAA Divisions I, II and III contributed a total of 257,299 hours of community service, an increase of approximately 47,000 hours from last year’s competition. According to the Independent Sector’s research on the national value of volunteer time, their efforts generated an estimated $8.9 million in economic impact.
