If you ask John Winter '85, the biggest classroom at Carleton isn't the lecture hall in Olin or one of the floors in the Libe — it's Laird Stadium.

As a football player at Carleton, Winter learned many of his most important life lessons on the field, competing alongside his teammates, rather than in the classroom (although he learned plenty there, too, as an econ major, which helped him during a 40-year career in finance). Among those lessons, perhaps ironic for an athlete who was later inducted into Carleton's 'C' Club Hall of Fame: how to learn from losing.

"When we were winning lots of games at Carleton, and then losing lots of games at Carleton [after entering the MIAC], I thought to myself, 'I'm still the same person.' I am not a winner just because the team wins, and I am not a loser just because the team loses," Winter said. "That was an important lesson to learn, because in life, sometimes you will lose. You work for a company that goes bankrupt. You get laid off. You struggle. These things happen. But the ability to manage that complexity, which I learned at Carleton, is the key to having the confidence and understanding to decide what success looks like and define it for yourself."

Kate Ainsworth Lovrien '96, one of Carleton's most decorated former student-athletes, is a member of Carleton's 'C' Club Hall of Fame as well and won multiple All-America awards — after finishing third in the nation her final season in the indoor 800-meter run, her time was the school record for 27 years, only broken by Mary Blanchard '24 in 2023. Lovrien found her biggest classroom at Carleton in the Arb and on the track, running with the women's track and field and cross country teams. The driven, determined, talented individuals who attended Carleton with her — "really smart people doing really hard things," as she put it — created an ideal environment in which she could grow.

"When you're around bright people doing amazing things," Lovrien said, "you just want to continue to do more and help each other. There was a direct parallel between running and academics at Carleton for me, because in both cases, there's no ceiling. There's always more to learn, more to accomplish, and there's always room to grow."

To celebrate and support Physical Education, Athletics, and Recreation (PEAR) at Carleton, Winter and Lovrien have joined a long tradition of Carls establishing endowed funds at the College.

Winter helped start the Bob Sullivan Football Fund in 2022 to support the Carleton football program, and expanded his support this year to help create the Game Changer Endowed Fund, dedicated to the entirety of PEAR. This fund supports every physical activity at Carleton not already covered by the Sullivan Fund — whether it's one of the College's D-III varsity teams, intramural pickleball, or an exciting new PE class to fulfill graduation requirements.

Lovrien started the Donna and Dave Ricks Endowed Fund for Track and Field and Cross Country this year to honor her beloved coaches and provide support for current and future Carleton students as they become "better people and better thinkers."

"Donna and Dave have committed more than 30 years of their lives to all of us who came through Carleton," Lovrien said. "We are so, so fortunate to have them. I don't think we can say thank you enough. The least we can do as alumni is give them some freedom, latitude, and flexibility to do the things that they want to do."

Every Carleton alum has at least a couple pivotal mentors from their time as a student who mean the world to them — for Lovrien, that's Donna and Dave.

"Their undeniable faith and confidence in people's abilities doesn't waver," she said. "Carleton students are really ambitious anyway — we're all academic, driven, slightly offbeat — but Donna and Dave take that in stride and set forth a path in total confidence. You say you're going to fly and they say, 'Oh, you can totally do that. This is how you figure it out.' And you believe them."

Winter and Lovrien each emphasized that funds like theirs serve all students at Carleton, not just student-athletes — high-quality athletic programs and well-funded recreational facilities lead to a better life on campus for everyone, even faculty and staff.

The Carleton Athletic Initiative (CAI), a part of the College's community-raised Alumni Annual Fund, is an important supplement to endowed funds like the Game Changer Fund and the Donna and Dave Ricks Fund, ensuring every student can benefit from fellow Carls' generous support. It provides vital flexibility to address the growing and ever-evolving needs of Carleton's PEAR programs.

"The CAI and our new endowed funds are working together to build equity across PEAR," said Heidi Jaynes, Carleton's athletic director and PEAR chair. "This combined approach gives us the ability to address needs while creating a more equitable experience for all students. With 76 percent of our Carleton students choosing to recreate and be active in recreation, sport clubs, or varsity athletics every day on our campus, we truly value the gifts made to our endowed funds and CAI. Without them, we would not be able to continue to advocate for our students' well-being or expand our programming and support. These alumni have given us resources that allow us to make strategic and informed decisions that ensure sustained support for our PEAR programs and facilities, well into the future. We are so very grateful!"

To illustrate the importance of flexible current support for PEAR, former Carleton athlete Herb Fritch '73 and his wife, Barbara, made a generous multi-year commitment to the CAI that will allow PEAR to plan ahead with equity across the department in mind. It will allow PEAR to make immediate improvements in athletic training and recovery equipment, locker room and practice spaces, recruiting resources, and increasing recreational opportunities for current Carleton students.

"I am very grateful to John, Kate, and Herb and Barbara for their dedication to enhancing the experience of Carleton students in physical education, athletics, and recreation," President Alison Byerly said. "We are happy to see alumni support activities that mattered to them during their time at Carleton, because we know there are current and future students who value the exact same things."

For Winter and Lovrien, along with countless other Carls, PEAR at Carleton was life-changing — the habits they learned and the connection they developed between mind and body have benefited them for their entire life after graduation. 

"Carleton set me up for my future," Lovrien said. "Being part of Carleton taught me, through both academics and athletics, how to take risks. My work is strategy consulting for hospitals, and with various forces in the field constantly changing, there's no single answer. It's never static, so I've needed the ability I learned at Carleton to constantly be nimble. You get in sticky situations, you get handed something that you don't know how you're going to conquer, and you have to figure it out. I always say, 'I don't necessarily know the answer, but I'm confident that with the right people, with the right teams, we can figure it out.' And I know that comes straight from both the athletics and academics at Carleton."

Winter's conversations with other former student-athletes, and even Carls who never played on a team in college, have had the same theme. He's seen that if you're successful at Carleton — academically, socially, athletically, take your pick — you're well-positioned to be successful in life.

Winter and Lovrien hope that the creation of the Game Changer Fund and the Donna and Dave Ricks Fund, which have both already sparked new relationships between former student-athletes and the College, will be a catalyst for strengthening alumni support for PEAR, as well as other Carleton programs that bolster student health and wellness broadly.

"With these funds, we're trying to create awareness for alumni that a rising tide lifts all boats," Winter said. "Even if you didn't play a sport at Carleton, or you don't care about the football program or cross country and track in particular, we as alumni can reflect on what we enjoyed at Carleton, what was most important to our growth and development, and then use those ideas to articulate and express our appreciation for the College in ways that are special to us — whichever ways those are."

For more information about these funds, or any other type of institutional giving, contact Carleton's development office.