Brief Background...
Growing up in a small town in Northeastern Pennsylvania does not always allow for the most fabulous of lives for a girl with big ambitions. Being involved in almost every club and organization in high school, including three sports, kept me pretty high achieving into my early twenties. This homecoming queen moved on to Scranton, PA (yes, like in The Office) to pursue a B.S. in Psychology. What did I want to do? Isn't is obvious? I wanted to listen to people's problems, help them work out their inner most issues. This was all well and good until I was one three credit internship away from graduating and I decided I no longer wanted to be a psychologist. I was lost. Being 22 years old and not knowing what I wanted out of life so close to graduation was disheartening for this over-achieving, small town girl.So I know what you're thinking - blah blah blah - same small town girl story. Well, maybe not so much. Where this story takes a twist is in what follows college. After a brief stint of thinking I wanted to be a Spanish Teacher (it was my second major), I kept getting pulled back to Sport Psychology. As I mentioned, I was a three sport athlete in high school and even played softball in college. Sport Psychology was something I understood, something I used, something I wanted to learn more about. Although my first choice school did not accept me, on one fateful day I found some information that would change the rest of my life...
Colorado
I remember this day distinctly, the day I turned 22. I was living at home, heartbroken from a recent breakup, working a job I did not enjoy for less than $12/hour with an hour commute each way, and pretty much down and out overall. So I am sitting at the computer and wasting time before we head to dinner and I am so focused on changing my life. I get set that I am going to pursue Sport Psychology, no matter what. In my search for graduate schools I come across the University of Denver. I check out the program and it looks like what I am looking for - a cross between psychology and exercise science. The phrase that changed my life was, "Still accepting applications for Fall 2007 admission..." Stop for a minute. Did I really just read that? It must be a mistake, they must have forgotten to update their website.Truth - no mistake - this program was in fact a new one and they were still accepting applications. I pitched the idea to my parents at dinner on my 22nd birthday. I will never forget what my mother said, "As much as I would hate to see you go, I think it would be great for you." That night I busted my butt to get my application completed and ready to send. Within a few days I had the whole package sent out and ready for review - now the waiting game. In two weeks time I had a phone interview with one of the professors, Dr. Steve Portenga. At the end of the call he said, "Well I'm sure you want to know when we will be making decisions...although the letters won't go out until next week, I'd like to say that we would love to have you join us in the fall."
I cannot describe the feeling that I had in that moment. It was relief, excitement, and fear all in one. In a few months time I would be living in Denver and pursuing an advanced degree in something I was not even sure I wanted to do. All I knew was that my life was about to change drastically.
Denver over 2 years...
Over the next two years I actively pursued my Master's degree. I instantly fell in love with Sport and Performance Psychology and found that what I really wanted to do was focus on Coaching Education. I worked diligently to prepare myself for a career after graduation, though I had no idea what I'd end up doing. I worked for a fitness company and loved it, but deep down knew I wanted more. My dream was to work for the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) . I actively sought out opportunities that would help open doors for me at the USOC and was able to work part-time in the Coaching Education Department over the summer of 2009. I knew that if I could do well with the projects I was working on such as the USACoaching.org web-site and the National Coach Educators Conference that it would be the start to something bigger, and it was...
USA Rugby
Nearing the end of the summer I was actively pursuing full time work all over the country. I found out about an opening with USA Rugby for a Youth Development Manager. Basically the position would work to grow the youth rugby population within the country. I had never played rugby, but I had the education for the position. I put in an application and hoped for the best. I landed the job. As of August 24th, 2009 I was an official employee of USA Rugby - my first REAL job.The same feeling I got when I got accepted to Denver overwhelmed me once again: excited, scared, nervous, ecstatic... I knew this was the start to my career, this was just the beginning...
Young Ambassador
Things were going great at USA Rugby (and still are!) for a few months when I found out about a volunteer position with the USOC. The Youth Olympic Games would be taking place in 2010 in Singapore and they were advertising for a Young Ambassador role. This person would work with the athletes going to Singapore from Team USA and motivate them to partake in cultural event at the games. It was all about youth development - exactly what I did at USA Rugby. I applied for the job and got accepted. Check out the press release here...So what now...
So here I am, 24 years old and living in Colorado. I have a successful job working for a national sports organization and a role as a young ambassador for Team USA in the Youth Olympic Games...not too bad if you ask me...
My blog posts will be about these things: USA Rugby and the Youth Olympic Games, and so much more. This is about my life, my quest for success, about being 24 (almost 25) and taking over the world...
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