It was a victory well earned.

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018, representatives from the American Heart Association presented Wayne State University with the University Heart Champion Trophy for winning the statewide Hands-Only CPR Challenge back in September.

Competing against the likes of the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Eastern Michigan University, University of Detroit Mercy and Oakland University, Wayne State was able to successfully train 1,040 of the 1,532 people state-wide on the Hands-Only CPR method.

"I am super excited to be standing in front of you today to present you as the first university to win our University Hands-Only CPR Challenge," said American Heart Association representative Alisha Mireles.

According to Mireles, only 3 in 10 people have CPR performed on them before EMS arrives in a cardiac situation, and every-minute that passes, an individual's chance of survival decreases by 10 percent.

Recognizing the need for action, Honors junior Cedric Mutebi and senior Kavya Davuluri spearheaded the Hand-Only CPR Challenge week, which including pre-challenge period where volunteers were trained.

"The University should be incredibly proud to know that it is home to such individuals as this student team," Mireles said. "Their work ethic, their call to humanity, their empathy, and their influence in society far surpasses any other student body that I have personally worked with in my professional career. I am personally and consistently impressed and astonished by this young group of individuals and I am extremely honored and humbled to know and be working with this team of young adults."

Wayne State University Provost Keith Whitfield said that one of the reasons he came to Wayne State was to "see and help people make a difference in the world."

"This does nothing but reify that this is exactly where I want to be and what I wanted to see happen has happened," he said. "To see the response those adults made and to see the kinds of excitement, energy, thinking -out of the box - that our students did, it blew them away and I was really gratified to see that it blew the American Heart Association away."

"It shows you that anything can be possible when you have the heart for it, the smarts for it, and the energy…thank you all for the energy and commitment you have actually put behind these activities," he added. "This is something that affects lots and lots of people. This is the idea that you not only change somebody's life, but you save somebody's life."