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Erin Bies '16 and Taylor Booth '15 have accomplished plenty as student athletes at Siena.

Bies carries a 3.51 GPA in social work and played a big role in the Saints' 2014 MAAC volleyball championship, appearing in all 34 matches and ranking second on the squad with 31 aces. Serving, it turns out, is what she does best.

Booth graduated in May with a 3.60 GPA in sociology and was the MAAC Goalkeeper of the Year and a First Team All-League selection after completing her Siena career as one of the most accomplished keepers in program history. She's always looking for her next potential save.

Bies and Booth are in the middle of a five-week internship at the Botshabelo orphanage in South Africa. The internship begins at 5 a.m. each morning and runs until 9 p.m. when they co-teach sexual education and empowerment lessons to African children. Their work includes everything from working on a sustainable garden they started from scratch to assisting in classroom lessons each morning. There is a 30-minute block each day allocated to sports and activities, and weekends are spent visiting lion and rhinoceros sanctuaries or at the area prison. Three hours are set aside each day for Bies and Booth to work on their personal projects. Bies is pursuing an ancestral lineage idea to help connect children to their families, and Booth's focus is personal empowerment.

This is the fourth service trip Bies has made to Africa as a Siena student (and she will start her senior year in the fall). As a freshman and sophomore she took two trips to Ethiopia. It's the second time she decided to give back in South Africa. She has done most of her work in orphanages, but also volunteered with local hospice organizations and helped facilitate a volleyball camp for orphans.

"After going there and growing such strong connections it makes you feel really good about yourself, because it shows what an impact you've had on their lives," Bies said.

Booth has been just as devoted to giving back, completing over 600 hours of service as a member of AmeriCorps' Community Corps program run through Siena's ACE (Academic Community Engagement) office. She made a service trip to Presque Isle in Maine where she visited homeless shelters and assisted in repairing facilities. Booth's crowning achievement was the creation of a community engagement program that partnered several Siena athletic teams with local non-profits. The program focuses on teaching interpersonal skills like leadership and teamwork to at-risk youth through engagement in sports. It found its most success with the Boys & Girls Club of Albany.

"(Siena student athletes have) always been involved in community service events, but I really wanted to branch out and partner with an organization to create a sustainable relationship that would allow us to have a deep and meaningful connection," Booth said.

Mission accomplished.