ROLLA, MO- What began as a team-building project for the women's basketball team turned into a much more powerful initiative, using social media to communicate their message. To further educate themselves about the world in which we live, head coach Kira Carter and her team set out to research systemic racism in America.  They posted their findings to their Twitter and Instagram pages, and the reaction they received was more than they could have ever imagined.

"With the incident that took place in the summer with George Floyd and events that have been going on throughout history, there has been a desire of change and people are rallying around it," said Carter. "Our team had discussed making a t-shirt and we talked about different phrases and through conversations we decided that we needed to educate ourselves about what our message was going to be and why we have a certain message."

From those conversations, the team researched areas where they believe systemic racism occurs, and in doing so, educated themselves to help shape their message.

"As a coach, I'm proud of my team for wanting to do something and that they were all open to learning. We have people from different racial, socioeconomical, and religious backgrounds…it was important to them as a whole. All of them wanted to do this and felt strongly about it."

Missouri S&T Athletic Director Melissa Ringhausen was impressed when she learned how dedicated the team was to this project.

"It is so encouraging to see S&T student-athletes having this level of commitment and effort to create change.  As a student-athlete, they have a unique opportunity to have an impact on so many people.  This initiative took a tremendous amount of time to plan and prepare while still managing their other commitments with class and practice.  Systemic racism is a real issue that plagues our society and to see these young women working to initiate tough conversations in hopes of change is remarkable."

While it originally started as a team-bonding project, Carter decided to voice the team's findings by posting to the team's social media accounts.  While an NCAA Division II women's basketball team might not seem like much of a platform, Carter feels the team is more educated on systemic racism and the project has had a trickle-down effect.

"I'm proud of them for wanting to use their voice…Our players have had conversations with their friends and it's an effect that trickles down throughout the people we have contact with. If we can open-up just a couple of people's eyes here and there, I think that is going to make a difference. Systemic racism is an issue that is bigger than individuals but at the end of the day, it takes individuals to make change."

The team split into sub-groups to research the definition of systemic racism; how it is prevalent within the law, schools, the workplace; and understanding the differences between the movement and the statement of 'Black Lives Matter'.  What the student-athletes found was more extreme than thought.

"I'm an engineer so I want to see the numbers behind everything and they were so drastic; for example, black students make up 18% of the kids in preschools but they account for 50% of suspensions within those schools and numbers like that were crazy to me," said senior Kristin Steins (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway South).

"For me, it was learning that more people didn't know that," explained Ashley Harvey (Raytown, Mo./Raytown). "Being African-American, I've already experienced this, so it was a learning process for me that people didn't know."

When asked what one lesson they would take from this project, essentially all three had the same answer: be willing to hear and listen to other people's perspectives and opinions.

"I think for us to have true change, we need to listen to each other's perspectives," explained Carter. "Because that's how we learn and that's how we are going to accomplish change."

The team's research can be found on their Twitter (@Miners_WBB) and Instagram (@miners_wbb) pages.