Amanda Blumenherst is the kind of athlete every school dreams about. For one thing, she's about the best there is in her sport. National Golf Coaches Association Player and Freshman of the Year in 2005-06, Amanda garnered virtually every award available in her rookie year.

A native of Scottsdale, Arizona, the sophomore was selected winner of the Edith Cummings Munson Golf Award as the nation's top golfer with the highest grade point average. She was a key factor in earning Duke's first-ever back-to-back national titles in women's golf, marking the team's fourth title in school history.

What makes this young woman especially remarkable, however, is her performance and attitude off the course. Amanda maintains a 3.783 grade-point average along with her rigorous practice schedule. Although Duke students don't have to declare a major until the spring of sophomore year, Amanda is already well on her way toward earning a bachelor's degree in European history.

She also sits on the executive committee of the Student Athletics Advisory Council, a group composed of undergraduate student-athletes representing each of Duke's varsity teams. In addition to advising the Department of Athletics on various issues, council members coordinate various service opportunities in the Durham area, including the Winter Fun Day, in which middle school kids participate in sports clinics with Duke athletes.

This year, Amanda took the helm of the council's other major annual service project: Project Share. "We adopted 37 people from the Durham area," she says. "Each person received up to $50 (in gifts) so we had to raise money for that from the student body within the athletic department."

Amanda, her teammate Yu Young-Lee, and Director of Student-Athlete Development Leslie Barnes shopped for all the gifts, then recruited the entire women's golf team for a gift-wrapping marathon. "Next year, we're going to get a lot more people to do it because it took such a long time," Amanda says. "Thirty-seven people to shop for? It was crazy."

Such efforts are typical of the student-athlete's work ethic and commitment to community service. "You have to recognize that golf or your sport isn't everything," she says. "You've got so much else, like helping out in your community or your family and friends. I want to have balance. For me it's being able to not have one aspect of my life dominate all the other ones."