Bormet, Kearns Named Big Ten Jackie Robinson Award Nominees
11/19/2025 12:00:00 PM | Field Hockey, General, Men's Lacrosse
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- University of Michigan redshirt junior Zoë Bormet and junior Kevin Kearns have been named as the school's nominees for the Big Ten Jackie Robinson Community & Impact Award, the conference office announced Wednesday (Nov. 19). Now in its second year, the award is presented to student-athletes who have made an exceptional impact in their local community.
Each Big Ten member-institution can nominate two student-athletes, one male and one female, from their respective schools. The Big Ten will select two Jackie Robinson Community & Impact award winners -- from the 36 nomination -- who will be announced this spring. All remaining nominees will be recognized with individual awards for their contributions to their local communities.Â
Bormet, a field hockey midfielder, is her team's representative on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), where she serves on the community engagement board. As a 2025-26 Team Impact Fellow, she has helped to plan Team Impact events and fundraisers across campus, as well as with tabling and medical outreach and serves as the lead for Michigan field hockey's match (Charlotte). Bormet is also a board member with the T. Wall Foundation, which works with more than 2,000 special needs families annually around Ann Arbor and surrounding communities, and has helped organize foundation events such as Victors Day.
Named the 2024-25 recipient of Michigan Athletics' Rachael Townsend Leadership Award for leading and encouraging her peers and teammates to serve, Bormet has volunteered with several special needs organizations, such as Exceptional Journeys, Night to Shine and Special Olympics, as well as Michigan's Mott Children's Hospital and the Food Insecurity Project in partnership with Food Gatherers.
Kearns, a defender on the men's lacrosse team, founded and organized a nationwide College Lacrosse 9/11 Stair Climb, where the men's and women's lacrosse teams ran 110 flights of stairs in the Big House -- raising $80,000 for families of FDNY first responders through the Michael J. Cawley Memorial Foundation. He is a 2025-26 Team Impact Fellow, taking charge of welcoming Lukas as a member of the Michigan men's lacrosse family for the upcoming spring season.
Kearns also attends monthly visits to Mott's Children's Hospital and is a regular volunteer at "Victors Day" -- Michigan Athletics' community sports event for people with special needs in and around Ann Arbor. He helps spearhead the Wolverine's involvement with the Headstrong Foundation, which has raised thousands of dollars for people battling cancer and has also volunteered with organizations such as Operation Christmas Child and "Fleece and Thank You."
The Big Ten Jackie Robinson Community & Impact Award was established in spring 2025 and recognizes student-athletes whose significant community service contributions align with Jackie Robinson's legacy of courage, determination, teamwork, persistence, integrity, citizenship, justice, commitment and excellence.
Before breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier, Jackie Robinson was a standout student-athlete at UCLA, where he was the school's first four-sport letter winner, excelling in football, basketball, track and field and baseball.
