UPEI's Katie VanLeeuwen receives AUS Swimming Community Service Award

Atlantic University Sport is pleased to announce the 2015-16 AUS swimming major award winners as selected by the conference's six head coaches.

Third-year Mount Pearl, N.L. native Gavin Dyke and second-year Newcastle, England native Phoebe Lenderyou, both of the Dalhousie Tigers, were named the male and female AUS swimmers of the year Fridayafternoon.

All of this season's AUS major award winners were announced during today's awards luncheon hosted by Dalhousie University and held at the Westin Nova Scotian in Halifax, N.S.

Dalhousie's Morrgan Payne of Dartmouth, N.S. and Lise Cinq-Mars of Newmarket, Ont. were named male and female AUS rookies of the year.

Jeremy Ryant of Winnipeg, Man., also from the Dalhousie Tigers squad, received the male student-athlete community service award. UPEI's Katie VanLeeuwen of Hunter River, P.E.I. was the recipient of the female student-athlete community service award.

In his fourth season as head coach of the Dalhousie Tigers, Lance Cansdale once again earned AUS coach of the year honours.

STUDENT-ATHLETE COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD (Women's Swimming): Katie VanLeeuwen, UPEI

The 2015-16 recipient of the AUS female student-athlete community service award is Katie VanLeeuwen of the UPEI Panthers.

VanLeeuwen is a third-year science student from Hunter River, P.E.I. majoring in biology with a minor in psychology. She boasts a current and cumulative 4.3 GPA.

In addition to working hard in the pool and in the classroom, VanLeeuwen is heavily involved in her local community. She volunteers for the UPEI Chaplaincy Center coordinating fundraising for the 2016 Relay for Life initiative. As a member of the UPEI Pre-Med Society, she also fundraises for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

VanLeeuwen serves as the chair of UPEI's World University Service of Canada committee, running the Student Refugee Program. She is a swimming coach for the Miniphins program and the Transfer to Competition group for the Charlottetown Bluephins.

Her volunteer activities also include transporting food donations to the UPEI food bank and serving as a reader and musician for St. Ann's Church, St. Pius X Church and the UPEI Chaplaincy Centre.