Full Great Women Great Danes Interview Transcript
UAlbany's Great Women Great Danes is a new series that will be published during Women's History Month. The series will feature Great Danes, past and present, and celebrate the women of UAlbany.
Q: You are the SAAC Community Engagement Chair, a member of the 4.0 club, you have created so many different community events for the student-athletes, and you have reached all this success being an athlete. You were top-15 in almost every single stat for batting in the America East last season, in 2019 you were pretty high in most of those stats as well, and as a freshman, you hit top-11, top-9 in batting average and putouts. How do you do it and balance it all?
A: I think, with being a student-athlete, obviously, there comes a lot of obligations, not only from our sport but also from academics and extracurriculars. I attribute a lot of that just to the time management skills I’ve been able to develop over the years. As you come in as a freshman you start to figure it out and put it together. Also, my teammates are there with me, everybody’s kind of going through the same thing and they’re all in the same boat. I think having them as a support system, as well along with coaches and staff … everybody here really wants you to succeed so having that support system has really helped me throughout the years as well.
Q: How have the women around you helped you to become the person and athlete you are today?
A: The women around me, specifically I would say my teammates and coaching staff, have really influenced who I am, not only as a player but also as a person. People like Kelly Barkevich, Amanda Mosall, Donna Conrad, Taylor Light, those are all former teammates of mine who have really been really awesome upper-classmen to me and kind of guiding me along the way. On the field or pursuing job opportunities, they have just really been a helping hand and have kind of shown me the way and made me want to be like that for my underclassmen and my fellow teammates as well.
Q: What about growing up? What about the women in high school, little league, middle school, and the entire journey?
A: I think for me the women surrounding me in my youth, obviously my mom and my sister were huge contributors to my success and just helping me kind of find a way and being a support system. Not only that, the girls in high school, travel ball, just being in the same boat with everyone and really having that shoulder to lean on every now and then, and just having people to relate to … I think it kind of brings you together and it helps boost one another up.
Q: What does it mean that people may be looking up to you because of your success?
A: I think sometimes knowing that people are looking up to you, it can be a bit of a stressor, you might feel like you’re under a microscope and you want to do well for those people that are looking at you. But I think looking at other athletes, people that I’ve looked up to even when they fail, seeing them take ownership for their mistakes but also being real and being authentic, I think has shown me that it’s okay not to be perfect all the time. These people, those girls, want to see who you truly are and kind of your path along the way and it doesn’t need to be perfect. I think that my years at UAlbany have really shown me that, you know, every day‘s a new day and you have an opportunity to kind of shine a light for other girls and kind of pave that way for them. I think it’s also really inspiring as much as it can be difficult
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Q: You are the Community Engagement Chair for SAAC, how long have you been in that position?
A: I have been the Community Engagement Chair for SAAC since the fall of 2019.
Q: Can you tell me more about what you do in that position?
A: As the Community Engagement Chair for SAAC I work with fellow student-athletes in SAAC to take on these community engagement initiatives. A few examples of what we do right now is we’ll either go to the local elementary school - or because of COVID, we’ve been doing a lot of virtual readings - and participate in their Ronald McDonald readings with them. We’ll also go to the local homeless shelter and feed them breakfast every now and then. Also, as a community engagement chair, I help to support the initiatives that the America East is putting in place, like Spread Respect and Better Together. I also help plan and implement the events that go along with that, like in years past we have done The Better Together Games, we also have Spread Respect Games for most of our sports as well.
Q: You guys (SAAC) have been doing a lot for the local food pantries, and title it “Food Frenzy”, can you talk about that?
A: Sure, so with Food Frenzy it is an America East initiative again that all the schools participate in. We either raise donations or money to buy cans to donate to the local food bank. Here we do the regional food bank and we’re basically competing with other schools to see who can raise the most food to donate to the food pantry.
Q: What about Helping Hands?
A: In the 2020-21 school year I received the America East Helping Hands award. That was basically a piece of recognition for the community engagement initiatives that I have been taking part in and volunteer work that I have been able to do as a student-athlete at UAlbany.
Q: You are a graduate student, what are your goals after graduation?
A: I have a few goals and I wouldn't say they are super specific. As of now, I want to remain in athletics, whether it be collegiate athletics or pro-sports. I want to be interacting with athletes and helping them on a day-to-day basis. Some of my goals range from being a community engagement coordinator for a pro-sports team, all the way to being an academic advisor for college athletes. But bottom line - I really want to be interacting with and making an impact on student-athletes' lives. I know that those who have helped me as a student-athlete have really made an impression on me, so I want to do the same in return.
Q: What does Women’s History Month mean to you?
A: Women’s History Month means a lot to me. Being a woman student-athlete, I think that it really just shows that it has come to a point where we are finally getting our time to shine. Not only that, we get to reflect on all of the women that have come before us and really paved a way for us and helped us get to where we are today.
For more interviews from the Women's History Month #GreatWomenGreatDanes series, click here.
