Alumna Clement Bridging Communities One Helper at a Time
7/21/2017 10:07:00 AM | Women's Basketball, Features
By Steve Kornacki
Krista Clement was a great leader on and off the court for the University of Michigan women's basketball team, and the love she developed for community service in Ann Arbor has led to her making a difference once again at the college level.
Clement, a rare four-time team captain, has created an app that helps student-athletes find and track the good they do in their cities and towns.
She played both guard positions, and graduated nine years ago with a general studies degree before becoming a middle school math teacher and basketball coach in St. Louis. However, it was the work she performed at Mott Children's Hospital, clinics she took part in locally, and a middle school mentorship program she participated in that sparked Clement to create something truly special.
Clement's Helper Helper app -- named for one of her grandmother's favorite sayings to initiate good deeds -- is catching on. She said it's being used at 385 NCAA member institutions, and last year George Washington University was honored for having the most community service performed by any Division I member institution as a result of the tracking element on the app.
"Imagine if a Michigan women's basketball player is going to the Mott Children's Hospital," said Clement, the Helper Helper CEO who leads a three-member staff from their office in Denver. "The app lets them know that opportunity is available or that there's also one at a local elementary school available to them. Then they are able to track all of their hours for their resume or postgraduate scholarships.
"We have a partnership with the NCAA and there's been a lot of excitement around the platform because we host a competition each year around which school has the most community service. So, it's a real positive, win-win situation where student-athletes are being really creative in how they engage in the community and get recognized by the NCAA for their outstanding contributions. And it's the schools that actually purchase Helper Helper, and then their students can download it from the app store or Google Play."
Clement added that she's reaching out to the Michigan High School Athletic Association about the possibility of the app being used at the high school level, and those interested can obtain more information at HelperHelper.com.
She said her alma mater was "a huge asset" while the app was being developed in a process that began three and a half years ago. Clement worked closely with Jevon Moore, Michigan's assistant director of leadership development, and Wolverines student-athletes were surveyed. She added that athletic department representatives have promoted Helper Helper at conventions in the two years since it became available.
The idea for the app was hatched when Clement was in a one-year MBA program at Saint Louis University.
"While I didn't have a background in business," said Clement, "I had a background in teams and competitiveness and goal-setting and passion. So, there was something about entrepreneurship that was real attractive to me in terms of the grit and excitement, and the opportunity to be creative and solve a really important problem.
"The assignment for that entrepreneurship class was to come up with an idea and formulate a business plan to launch it. Helper Helper was the idea that I felt I could make the most positive impact with."
How did she come up with the name for the app?
"When I was little," said Clement, "my grandmother used to always tell me, 'Be a helper helper girl.' Her definition of that was being kind, caring about the person next to you whether you knew them or not, and just being helpful. My grandmother (Peggy Brown) was a fabulous person in the St. Ignace community."
Clement grew up in St. Ignace, and was the first Upper Peninsula player named Miss Basketball in Michigan in 2003, leading LaSalle High to a 99-5 record and scoring a school-record 2,060 points in her career. The Saints won the Class C state championship in her freshman season, and lost the championship game when she was a junior.
Three Wolverines football legends connected with her when she was choosing a university. Barry Pierson, a St. Ignace native who was the defensive star of Michigan's 1969 upset of No. 1 Ohio State, took her to see Coach Bo Schembechler. Dan Dierdorf, Pierson's teammate on that '69 squad and a member of both the college and pro football hall of fames, is the father of one of Clement's college teammates, Katie Dierdorf.
"I had two memorable experiences when I was trying to decide where I went to college," said Clement.
One was a call from Dan Dierdorf and the other was when Pierson took her to visit Schembechler.
"I was really good friends with Barry Pierson's son growing up," said Clement. "Barry put us through football weight-lifting workouts in summers, and he wanted me to go to Michigan. So, he took me down on a visit and into Bo Schembechler's office. But, at the time, I had no idea who he was."
She sat down across from the Hall of Fame coach, who asked her what schools she was considering. After listing Michigan, Marquette, Duke and Michigan State, she recalled Schembechler saying: "Awww! You've got to be kidding me! The only good choice on that list is Michigan. You're going to Michigan!"
Clement was a bit befuddled by that hard-sell approach, but said she could surely sense "his passion" for his school. She thanked Schembechler and proceeded to find out just how great he was after mentioning that meeting to her mother.
She also had no idea who Dierdorf was -- Michigan coach Cheryl Burnett asked him to call her -- but also learned of what made him special. Dierdorf, now the radio analyst for Wolverines football games, ended up becoming a good friend over the years.
"They took me in as their second daughter," Clement said of Dan and Debbie Dierdorf. "They were the best. I got to spend Thanksgiving, Easter and birthdays with them. They just welcomed me in."
She noted that Dierdorf and Pierson contributed strongly "to a common theme in my life" where people in her community or network "helped me dream a little bit bigger" in life.
"I credit that for a lot of where I am today to use Helper Helper as a way for more student-athletes to be that role model in young people's lives," said Clement. "It's been really exciting to see where they shift from looking up to the Barry Piersons and Dan Dierdorfs of the world to having the opportunity to play that role for the young people who come after them."
I asked Clement what enabled her to win the respect of her teammates and be elected captain shortly after arriving on campus as a freshman.
"I was the point guard on my high school team as a freshman and so my coaches expected leadership from me," said Clement, who credited the husband-wife coaching team of Dorene and Doug Ingalls for that. "I was mature, had big goals and was persistent in my ways of getting people to follow me down certain paths. We worked out together that summer, and getting them excited about the track workouts was something they appreciated."
She loved the "basketball house" off State Street that she rented and lived in with a half dozen teammates, and her fondest playing memory was beating Michigan State as a senior.
Clement said she and teammates from that era always migrate back to that house when they return to campus for a gathering or game to take a photo together. She cherishes her experiences as a student-athlete, and now aims to help those currently at universities enrich their time.
"Student-athletes don't have a requirement to do community service," said Clement, "but it is something they enjoy doing and something the universities prioritize.
"It gave us a chance to engage in something other than our day-to-day responsibilities. There was no better time for laughter and team camaraderie than when we got a chance to be engaging with each other outside of the day-to-day."
• HelperHelper.com
