Golfer Bria' Sanders Meets Congressman Steve Cohen
By Joyce Crawford

Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN-9) took time out of his busy schedule to meet with Memphis junior golfer, and former Memphis School student Bria' Sanders, at his Memphis office recently after learning about her educational and golf achievements.

The congressman was interested in learning of Bria' attending The Hank Haney Intl. Junior Golf Academy (HH IJGA) and surprised she attends the entire school year. "Must be awfully hard to go to high school in Hilton Head Island", he said with a smiled.

Bria' told the congressman students from more than thirty countries attend the academy and she has learned to speak to her friends in Spanish and write in Korean. "My roommates were from Thailand, and Canada this past year", added Bria'. She also told him about her school schedule, "School is 7:30 to 12:30, lunch, and then golf practice from 1:30 to 5 PM daily".

Rep. Cohen was impressed when he asked about her grades. Bria' responded, "I ended up with a 3.7 GPA this year and I did some community service work traveling from Hilton Head to Savannah, GA to teach golf to kids at the First Tee of Savannah with other students from HHIJGA".
Equally impressive was Bria's golf record at the academy. She ranked second nationally on the International Junior Golf Tour (IJGT) in her first year of competition and was selected to the 2011 All IJGT Team. In addition, she traveled to Orlando to receive an award from Hank Haney for being selected to the team this past June.
At the close of the meeting, Rep. Cohen presented Bria' with the Congressional Award for Meritorious Achievement. "You keep up the good work, I'm very proud of you young lady".

Bria' also took time, before returning to school, to take students from local schools on an engineering field trip to Christian Brothers University (CBU) sponsored by the Bria' Sanders Foundation. Bria's foundation provides Science, Technology Engineering, and Math (STEM) field trips for students in the area. "Mr. Price took us through the CBU labs and showed us how they perform test, the CBU students had made a cool dune buggy, but we couldn't ride it", Bria' said with a smile. Randel M. Price is Associate Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at CBU.
This summer, when she was not practicing six days a week at Quail Ridge Golf Course, Bria' could be spotted working out with her trainer, Tony Knox, at the Forever Fit Gym in the Crescent Building on Poplar.
Bria' received an invitation to participate in the 2011 Black Enterprise Golf and Tennis Challenge being held at Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami, Florida. "It's a great honor and I hope I can go", stated Bria, "It's tough on my parents sending me to school and turning around and flying me down to the Black Enterprise event, but what a great opportunity".

Bria' who is preparing to leave the second week in August for the start of her second school year at HHIJGA will be in the tenth grade. "I'm going to miss my family and friends but we'll stay in contact via Skype and Facebook".

Photo by Michael Sanders