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Alfred State Graduate To Join Total Person Program At Mizzou

Morgan Franchina

Recent Alfred State College graduate Morgan Franchina has had a special connection to the Athletics Department at the college for the past several years.

Thanks to Pioneers head football coach Tony Spencer and a connection he has with the University of Missouri, Franchina is going to be able to continue providing a needed service to the Tigers in the Southeastern Conference for the next two years.

Morgan, the daughter of Randy and Dianne Franchina of Jamestown, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business just a few weekends ago, but will quickly turn around and continue her education in Columbia, Missouri in just a couple of months.

Morgan will join the Total Person Program at Missouri. According to the school’s website, the TPP is dedicated to developing the total student-athlete. Through the program’s comprehensive services, Mizzou student-athletes receive top quality assistance to ensure their success. The TPP understands the pressures and special needs of our student-athletes and works closely with them to monitor their development and make certain their experience at Mizzou is a positive one.

The TPP provides MU student-athletes with a team of trained professionals to assist with the rigors of collegiate academics and athletics. Each student-athlete is supported relative to his or her individual needs and goals. The TPP staff provides many different services for its student-athletes.

Morgan filled essentially the same role at Alfred State for the past several seasons, the last two under Coach Spencer’s staff.

“She set up a lot of the travel schedule as well as meals on the road. Morgan was actually attached to the program with her brother and sister going to school here since 2008,” Spencer said earlier this month. “We knew she was already part of the team, getting things done with football operations.”

Morgan also ran some of the football team’s study halls. Every sports team at the Division I level has an academic coordinator who uses graduate assistants and academic advisers to monitor study halls and make sure student-athletes are in the correct classes to make sure they are on track to graduate.

Coach Spencer’s girlfriend, Krista Gray, is an academic adviser at Missouri and told Coach Spencer that they’d be looking for a some graduate assistants in Columbia. It became a perfect fit for Morgan.

“She cares about people and their well-being. She wants what’s best for not only the student-athlete, but people in general. Her heart is genuinely a big heart. She just wants what’s best for everybody,” Spencer said of Morgan. “Her being a part of our program, as well as getting good grades on her own, holding study hall and being able to do that on her own is a huge accomplishment. Not too many people in college can do that during their undergraduate.”

Through the Total Person Program, Morgan will eventually earn her master’s degree and have it paid for by the university in the process.

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