Starting next fall, Mississippi State University’s athletic department will launch its new incentive, Athlete of the Month.
This incentive will showcase student athletes through different areas such as academics, community service and sportsmanship. The purpose of this is to show the Bulldog community athletes do more than hit the field, jump hurdles and huddle up. This incentive is an effort to show appreciation for all that athletes do.
Each month one female and one male student athlete will be recognized as Student Athletes of the Month.
Life Skills coordinator and Senior Associate Athletic Director Ann Carr further explained why the program is reaching out through this promotion. 
 “We wanted to encourage our student athletes,” Carr said. “We want them to see we know they are doing some good, and we want them to know that we appreciate them when they are out on the court, on the field, on the mound, on the track when they put that maroon and white on and when they don’t have on their maroon and white.”  
 
This new recognition is through the Life Skills Program within the athletic department. Carr said this is a good way to show athletes do more than what meets the eye. 
“This is just another avenue to promote student athletes and an opportunity for us to be able to showcase some of the positive things some of our student athletes do outside of athletics,” Carr said. “A lot of people only look at student athletes as to what they do whether it’s playing basketball on the football field, they never see some of the things our student athletes do in the community and they really do a lot.”
A lot of the athletes here at MSU are involved in a number of community services such as a Breakfast with Champions, which is an event to promote healthy eating in grade schools, Relay for Life, a drive for the Salvation Army and Thanksgiving food drives. Carr rewards the sports team that does the most community service with a plaque.  
Ann Carr, life skills coordinatior and Lindsay Pinkston, graduate assistant coordinator, along with other members of the athletic department will nominate potential althletes of the month. The Student Athlete of the Month’s advisory board will select the monthly winners. 
Carr said in a sit-down interview once the Athlete of the Month is selected then the board will announce it.
“This will start in the fall and what we’ll do is put it on our website and most of our student athletes go to the Templeton,” Carr said. “We’ll put up an easel so when the students go through, others can see who is (the) Student Athlete of the Month.”
MSU tennis player Juan Cruz, freshman marketing major from Buenos Aires, Argentina, looks at the new incentive as a positive way to shed light on athletes.
“It sounds really interesting and I would like to be a part of it,” Cruz said. “It would be good for athletes to compete (for the award) and to be a part of this would be really fun.”
Interest rises for AOTM with Associate Director for Athletic Academics, Lynda K. Moore, from Yazoo, Mississippi.
“Athletes are competitive at heart, that’s why they are good at what they do,” Moore said. “Anything that inspires friendly competition will be a positive, especially if it’s an improvement in grades, and improvement in community service. I’m interested to see what it will do.” 
Carr has  good vibes about the upcoming initiative and hopes that athletes gain something from it.
“I feel good about it. I think that this is something that shows our student athletes and helps them become better well-rounded. We are not looking at them as just athletes,” Carr said. “If we can help them understand the importance of all of this, then they leave here as a better person.”