NEC RELEASE

SOMERSET, N.J.— Natalia Rivera of the LIU Brooklyn volleyball team was selected to represent the Northeast Conference at the 2019 NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum in Orlando, Fla. from April 11-14. Rivera joins Robert Morris soccer player Oeyvind Skjesol as the NEC's representatives at this years forum.

The Blackbirds junior libero is coming off a sensational junior campaign in which she earned NEC and ECAC Defensive Player of the Year along with first-team All-NEC honors. Rivera is a three-year member of the LIU SAAC and the National Society of Leadership and Success, and is also a representative of LIU Latinos Unidos. She is a three-time member of the NEC Academic Honor Roll. Rivera, who hails from Cayey, Puerto Rico, majors in Biology and carries a 3.60 GPA.

The NCAA Leadership Forum, created in 1997, has engaged more than 5,000 student-athletes, who have returned to campus with invaluable leadership skills, as well as the experience of exploring the relationship between personal values, core beliefs and behavioral styles. Likewise, student-athletes walk away with a thorough understanding of the NCAA as a whole, the different divisional perspectives and the valuable role of Student-Athlete Advisory Committees (SAAC).