SURVIVOR: AFRICA WINNER & GRASSROOT SOCCER CO-FOUNDER ETHAN ZOHN TO SPEAK AT CORTLAND SPORT MANAGEMENT AWARDS CEREMONY APRIL 30

CORTLAND, New York – Ethan Zohn, the winner in the CBS television series Survivor: Africa and the co-founder of Grassroot Soccer, will deliver the keynote address at the Eighth Annual Cortland Sport Management Awards Ceremony Thursday, April 30 on the SUNY Cortland campus. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Brown Auditorium in the Old Main Building and will begin at 6 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Although he is most famous for his successful 2003 appearance on Survivor: Africa, Zohn has also made a global impact in sport, youth education and disease prevention. He co-founded Grassroot Soccer (www.grassrootsoccer.org), a nonprofit organization that trains professional soccer players to teach African children, through a tailor-made curriculum, about HIV/AIDS prevention. Since its founding, Grassroot Soccer has partnered with the Gates Foundation, FIFA Futbol for Hope, Daimler Chrysler, DeBeers and the Kellogg Foundation. The organization has ‘graduated’ over 230,000 youths. By the FIFA World Cup in South Africa in 2010, the organization’s goal is to graduate one million African youths from the program.

Zohn is also the national spokesperson for America Scores, an organization that helps inner-city kids participate in educational soccer programs. Other extensive charity work includes the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric AIDS Foundation, KickAIDS, the Colon Cancer Alliance and Autism Speaks.

In recognition for his charitable work, Zohn has been awarded the Nkosi Johnson Community Spirit Award by the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care, the Heroes Among Us Award from the Boston Celtics and the Massachusetts State Health Department, and the Auxilia Chimusoro Award from the U.S. State Department in Zimbabwe.

Among his many broadcast credits, Zohn’s own television show, EarthTripping – profiling eco-friendly travel and adventure around the globe – will premiere this fall on the EquatorHD. He has also hosted The MSG Soccer Report (Madison Square Garden Network) and F.C. Fox (Fox Soccer Channel), in addition to working as a sideline commentator and soccer analyst for MLS, MISL and ESPN Radio.

Originally from Lexington, MA, Zohn graduated from Vassar College in upstate New York, going on to play professional soccer for Highlanders FC (Zimbabwe), Cape Cod Crusaders (Massachusetts, USA) and Hawaii Tsunami (Hawaii, USA). He also played for the 1997 and 2001 U.S. Maccabiah squads. Off the field, from 1998 to 2002, Zohn was the assistant coach for the Fairleigh Dickinson University men’s and women’s soccer teams. In 2003 he was head coach of the U.S. Maccabiah team at the Pan-American Maccabiah Games in Santiago, Chile.

The awards ceremony is organized each year by Cortland’s sport management department to spotlight student excellence in both academics and service learning activities. The following awards will be presented: Outstanding Sophomore, Outstanding Junior, Outstanding Senior, the Bogard Scholarship, the Excelsior Award, the Sport Law Award, the Information Technology in Sport Award, the International Sport Management Award, the Graduate Service Award and the Wingate Scholarship.

SUNY Cortland’s innovative sport management department currently has over 400 undergraduate and 100 graduate students enrolled in its business-based degree programs. Students are provided with both the formal academic foundation and the additional key experiential learning opportunities necessary to gain access to a career in the extremely competitive sport industry. SUNY Cortland is located in Cortland, a Central New York town located at the eastern gateway to New York State’s Finger Lakes Region. This event is supported by the SUNY Cortland Sport Management Club, the Campus Artist and Lecture Series and the Hampton Inn.