NAMPA – Abby Black is one of the best pure athletes the Northwest Nazarene volleyball program has ever had.

She jumps high, hits hard and is very athletically gifted.

That ability helped her land a college scholarship and the chance to continue to play the sport she loves.

It is her other talents, though, that the business major has worked hard on refining since arriving on campus.

"I wanted to be in a leadership role on campus," she said. "I mostly wanted to branch out. It's a small campus, but it can be hard to meet people when you are going from your dorm to the JSC (Johnson Sports Center), dorm to JSC.

"Freshman year I had built-in friends with my team and we spent a lot of time together, but I wanted to explore other aspects of campus. It ended up being a huge blessing because I met a whole set of people that I didn't know."

Black, a redshirt sophomore from Wenatchee, Wash., was a resident assistant her second year on campus, helping guide a wing in Dooley Hall.

She was planning on being an RA again this year but ended up moving off campus and instead joined the Peer Mentor program.

The aim of the program is to provide peer-to-peer support for new and returning undergraduate students. The mentors are trained in confidentiality, making appropriate referrals, being good listeners and reaching out to others. Each wing in the first-year residence halls is assigned a peer mentor to partner with the RA on that wing. There are also peer mentors for student-athletes, transfer students and commuter students.

"Abby is consistent, involved and shows up regularly to support her fellow students," said Genelyn Maidwell, director of the Peer Mentor program. "She provides valuable input and ideas in the peer mentor group, often smiling and encouraging students around her. She is a natural leader, who is teachable and eager to develop her leadership skills."

Those skills have always existed for Black, but she credits the support she has received at NNU with helping take it to a new level. Beyond her work as an RA and a Peer Mentor, she also is a junior class senator, the volleyball representative for the student-athlete advisory committee and is part of the American Marketing Association chapter on campus.

"I have been so impressed with Abby and her ability to make relationships with anyone on campus and her desire to be involved," said volleyball coach Doug English. "She is very welcoming and easy to have a conversation with. She never makes it about her and is genuinely interested in everything and everyone around her.

"She embodies a servant's heart."

This has helped her be successful in the peer mentor program, even with players on her own team.

"Abby and the other peer mentors put together a get-well-soon gift for me after I got hurt," said Lily Kinloch, a redshirt freshman from Yakima, Wash., who faced off against Black in high school. "Abby puts in the effort to make me feel involved in practices or during games when I can't play. Whether it is a quick checkup on my day or making silly jokes in between breaks, it's something I greatly appreciate.

"Abby was a player I always looked up to – literally because she jumps so high – but also because she is a great player and someone to grow with and learn from."

That was apparent on a recent team trip to Alaska, where English asked her to share her testimony with the youth group at Hillcrest Church of the Nazarene in Anchorage.

Taking advantage of her platform as an athlete, Black has impacted not only students in Alaska and Nampa, but plenty of places in between.

"I have had some opportunities growing up to be in different leadership roles," she said, "but NNU has really facilitated those opportunities even more. Everyone I work with is encouraging and you feel supported in these roles.

"NNU has opened doors and helped me walk through them."