Carly Zucker knows how one person can make a difference. This is why she is dedicated to inspiring others to get involved in charitable giving. “I host a radio show where I interview sports figures about their philanthropic work in the community,” Carly says. “I want people to get active and find something that speaks to them.” She started the #GIVE16 campaign with her own sports figure, husband Jason Zucker, a left wing for the NHL's Minnesota Wild. “We support and raise money for the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital. With the help of fans, friends, family, and businesses, we raised over $1 million dollars in one season,” she says. “It’s great to see how those donations add up to make one big donation, to make our community a better place.”

Carly majored in Communication Studies and minored in Political Science at Gustavus. Her time on campus not only prepared her for her current career as KFAN’s first female sports show host in a decade, but also for life beyond her major. “My professors held us to a really high standard,” she says. “I never felt like another student to them. I felt like they were speaking right to me, and not just about academics. We would have life lessons in the middle of learning academically.” One day, Professor Terry Morrow asked why Carly and her friends referenced themselves as girls instead of women. “He said that we needed to respect ourselves and demand the respect of others. He showed us we were mature, capable people—men or women—that we could make a difference. They cared about preparing us for life.”

Carly has carried that empowerment into her career, her charity work, and to her morning breakfast table. “We always try to start our day positive, and I’m not a morning person,” she says laughing. “So that’s a really big deal for me. I don’t even drink caffeine. My husband and I and our kids make an effort to do that every morning. It leads to a positive day, and anyway you can spread that to other people is a good thing. It’s little but meaningful to us.”