The Lion Ambassadors gave a presentation during Thursday’s Board of Trustees’ Committee on Academic Affairs and Student Life meeting in which they outlined their organization and explained some of the events they lead at Penn State with pride.

One of the programs The Lion Ambassadors highlighted was the S-Zone, a portion of the football student section behind the south end zone that gives out shirts to students sitting in the section to create an “S.” The group noted that the S-Zone is one of their most successful and nationally well-known endeavors, and said that they are planning to bring an S-Zone to other home sporting events at Penn State.

In addition to football, Executive Vice President Gerald Bannon said that The Lion Ambassadors hope to see the S-Zone expanded to basketball, soccer, and baseball, among others. The organization hopes to see the additional students sections clad in blue and white shirts implemented in the coming months.

Bannon, who was accompanied by Lion Ambassadors Administrative Vice President Rebecca Sredni and Director of Internal Affairs Joshua Clothiaux, said that a $1 million grant that the Lion Ambassadors received last year is enabling the organization to make this expansion.

Though basketball has the recently rebranded Legion of Blue and soccer has the Sons of Jeffrey, the S-Zone would provide an added element of Penn State pride and spectacle to home sporting events, further supporting the teams.

The Lion Ambassadors highlighted a number of their other traditions and events to the committee, including the lantern tours and the guarding of the Lion Shrine. Earlier in the session, Vice President for Student Affairs Damon Sims talked about the increase in a number of student alcohol statistics, including the percent of moderate to heavy drinkers (meaning a drop in the percentage of students who reported they do not drink or they drink “lightly”). Sims said that “the sum of this data is not good,” and that these statistics are having an impact on student successes and GPAs.

Committee meetings will wrap up this afternoon, and the full board will meet Friday at 1:30 p.m.