Kansas City, Mo. - Sterling College has been named a Five Star Champions of Character Institution by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) for the 2010-2011 school year. A Five Star Champions of Character Institution shows commitment in athletics to the five key areas of character training, conduct in competition, academic focus, character recognition, and character promotion. These five areas measure the Institutions commitment to the Champions of Character core values of integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship, and servant leadership.

The Association, which boasts a proud reputation as an arena that promotes competitive athletics, academic excellence and character values simultaneously, will recognize 220 colleges and universities and 23 conferences with the Champions of Character Five Star Award. To receive the award members scored 60 or more points on the NAIA Champions of Character Scorecard and conferences named to the list had at least 60% of its member schools making the grade with 60 or more points.

“In today’s complex college athletic environments – where success is sometimes only measured by wins and losses – strengthening effective athletic departments and leadership is key to advancing character-driven intercollegiate athletics,” said Kristin Gillette, NAIA Director of Champions of Character. “The Scorecard supports and recognizes member institutions and conferences using sport as a vehicle to teach life lessons. No doubt this is a point of differentiation in college athletics and making a huge impact on our 60,000 student-athletes.”

The Scorecard was crafted to convert the NAIA’s vision and strategy into measurable goals and to monitor progress towards advancing character-driven intercollegiate athletics. The initiative supports performance-driven athletics while defining expectations and standards that drive successful teams and athletics departments.

Institutions were measured based on a demonstrated commitment to Champions of Character and earned points in each of the following categories: character training, conduct in competition, academic focus, character recognition and character promotion. Institutions earned points based on exceptional student-athlete grade point averages and by obtaining zero ejections during competition throughout the course of the academic year.