NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The 2019-20 Yale University Athletics awards program continues with three recipients of the Molly Meyer Humanitarian Award. The three standout seniors are: from women's soccer, Alyssa Fagel, from women's track & field, Natasha Feshbach and from football, Sterling Strother.
 
The Molly Meyer Humanitarian Award is given annually to male and female senior student-athletes whose character exemplifies selfless devotion along with compassion and concern for their team and the community at Yale and beyond.
 
Fagel was instrumental in the women's soccer team's transition through multiple head coaches in just a short amount of time while still leading her team to impressive heights in 2019. The team captain for the Bulldogs was the voice of the team as they transitioned to a new staff and went on to post the most wins in a season in nearly 15 years.
 
"Alyssa was mature, thoughtful and compassionate in being a support system for each of her teammates, even at a time when her career had just ended," said Loring Family Head Coach of Women's Soccer Sarah Martinez. "Without Alyssa's selfless leadership as a captain, I'm not sure how the women's soccer program would have navigated one of the hardest years imaginable for them."
 
Fagel was also involved in the community off the pitch as part of the New Haven Reads program where she was active in supervising the field trips for local elementary schools. She was also a part of a group that spent one hour per week at the Boys and Girls Club mentoring and playing soccer with middle-school aged children in the New Haven community. In 2017 she was a summer legal intern at Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The following year, she participated in a program called Lawyers without Borders in which she helped organize training programs on wildlife crime and human trafficking in Tanzania and Kenya, respectively.


 
Feshbach, the captain of the Bulldogs in 2019-20, constantly set the example for her team on and off the track. She fought through numerous injuries and battled through them all for a top-10 finish at the 2020 Ivy League Indoor Championship.
 
"Natasha is a kind, caring and selfless woman.  She cares deeply about her team and their success both on and off the track," said Mark T. Young '68 Director of Cross Country and Track and Field David Shoehalter. "She has been a tremendous captain and played a large role in establishing a healthy and positive team culture."
 
Feshbach was also extremely active in the community as the co-chair of YWAC as she gives much of her time to bettering the live of Yale's women athletes. She also looks beyond just the campus in New Haven as she runs her own Instagram account that is dedicated solely to healthy and environmentally conscious food and cooking.


 
Strother boasts two Ivy League football championships in the past year which includes his final game which cliched the title and was perhaps the greatest edition ever played in the 136-year history of "The Game." His accomplishments as an executive committee member Mandi Schwartz Marrow Drive may be even more impressive as he has not only taken Yale to a No. 1 ranking for registrants in the nation but he himself donated marrow to save the life of a 41-year-old woman.
 
"Sterling embodies Molly Meyer's humanitarian spirit by putting forth three years of his tireless effort to engage the Yale community. In addition, Molly Meyer has been a participant in each of the 11 years of the Yale drive," said Joel E. Smilow '54 Heach Coach of Football Tony Reno. "It's an event that she and Sterling share the same passion. Sterling has been a contributor to Yale athletics and to the many lives of people with cancer. His legacy will keep on saving lives.  Sterling's significance is and will be reflected in the eyes of others for years to come."
 
In each of his three years, Yale University has had the largest drive in the country, and it has saved more lives than any other drive. In 11 years of the Mandi Schwartz Drive, 7,000 Yale community people have been placed on the national registry and an incredible 67 lives have been saved.