One Race Finished, Many More to Come...
-Alexandra Street
Kick start into continuing my education:
As I sit down and ponder the path that took me to strive for my master's, I see my route to success similar to a car race. It took awhile for my engine to warm up, but once it did, I was off to the races.
When I look back, I find that my race started back in February of 2006. I was faced with a life changing decision. I was asked to accompany the head coach of the field hockey team to coach at University of Virginia. At the time I was living in East Lansing, working at Michigan State and only had six months of professional work under my belt. My boss called me one evening and asked me if I would move to Virginia in two weeks and be her assistant. I remember the night perfectly. I was sitting on my bed in my apartment and questions started rushing through my mind. Can I leave Michigan? Would I be abandoning the players? Where would I live? Who would I know? After weighing the pros and cons of staying and going, I took a leap of faith and decided to pack up all of my things and move to the east coast, Charlottesville, here I come.
This ended up being one of the best decisions of my life. Seeing my life six years later makes it much clearer than when I moved. Grabbing hold of the unknown and having faith and trust that it would work out made my experience amazing. It was at the University of Virginia that I really embraced the value of education and where it can take you….or without it, what limits you. I equate this self-revelation to understanding the importance of a college degree and post-graduate degrees as well. As the founder of University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson thought education should be endless, hence why students are called 1st or 2nd years instead of freshman or sophomores. The idea of endless education hit home for me. In some ways it was my “ah-ha” moment to kick start me into the desire to obtain my masters degree. I was learning at my job each day, but how was I improving where I wanted to go with my life?
As a faculty member at the University, they offer continued education semester allowances. I decided I wanted to take advantage of this offer. Where could my continued education take me? Amazingly, I found my answers at a one week convention called Women’s Coaches Academy, WCA, in Denver, Colorado in December of 2008. It was at the WCA that I realized I did not want to be an assistant my entire life, I wanted to be a head coach. I came back to Virginia with a vision. I needed and wanted to obtain my master's degree to take me to the next level in my career, a head coach. The WCA kick started my desire to learn formally. I studied for my GREs, applied for grad school and started at University of Virginia that summer. The next step to achieve my professional goal was in motion, the starting flag was waving.
When I look back, I find that my race started back in February of 2006. I was faced with a life changing decision. I was asked to accompany the head coach of the field hockey team to coach at University of Virginia. At the time I was living in East Lansing, working at Michigan State and only had six months of professional work under my belt. My boss called me one evening and asked me if I would move to Virginia in two weeks and be her assistant. I remember the night perfectly. I was sitting on my bed in my apartment and questions started rushing through my mind. Can I leave Michigan? Would I be abandoning the players? Where would I live? Who would I know? After weighing the pros and cons of staying and going, I took a leap of faith and decided to pack up all of my things and move to the east coast, Charlottesville, here I come.
This ended up being one of the best decisions of my life. Seeing my life six years later makes it much clearer than when I moved. Grabbing hold of the unknown and having faith and trust that it would work out made my experience amazing. It was at the University of Virginia that I really embraced the value of education and where it can take you….or without it, what limits you. I equate this self-revelation to understanding the importance of a college degree and post-graduate degrees as well. As the founder of University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson thought education should be endless, hence why students are called 1st or 2nd years instead of freshman or sophomores. The idea of endless education hit home for me. In some ways it was my “ah-ha” moment to kick start me into the desire to obtain my masters degree. I was learning at my job each day, but how was I improving where I wanted to go with my life?
As a faculty member at the University, they offer continued education semester allowances. I decided I wanted to take advantage of this offer. Where could my continued education take me? Amazingly, I found my answers at a one week convention called Women’s Coaches Academy, WCA, in Denver, Colorado in December of 2008. It was at the WCA that I realized I did not want to be an assistant my entire life, I wanted to be a head coach. I came back to Virginia with a vision. I needed and wanted to obtain my master's degree to take me to the next level in my career, a head coach. The WCA kick started my desire to learn formally. I studied for my GREs, applied for grad school and started at University of Virginia that summer. The next step to achieve my professional goal was in motion, the starting flag was waving.
Caution flag and the race just started:
Excited and eager to have a professional goal in my life, I wanted to do everything I could to obtain my master's degree and start applying for head coaching positions. My first two courses at University of Virginia went great. The third course was a struggle to juggle with my full time job. Then the yellow flag was thrown, the program I was in was being dropped from the University. At that time, it felt like a huge roadblock. I had my future planned and now I had to readjust. This is when I remembered my friend telling me about her experience with Michigan State’s online masters program. Although, I thought my program being cut at Virginia was a disaster, it ended up being a blessing in disguise. The Master of Arts in Education program at Michigan State was a perfect fit for me. I was able to enroll in classes that seemed tailored specifically to me and my coaching path. The MEAD program gave me the opportunity to work full time when I started the program, start a family and follow my career goals. The flexibility of online learning and the ability to choose classes specific to my needs has been a perfect fit. Finding the MEAD program seemed like another engine was put on my car.
Influential courses along the race:
KIN 854 was a particular course I took in the MEAD program that I impressed me. The course is Legal/Administrative Issues of Coaching. I took this course in the spring of 2011. At the time I had been an assistant coach for six seasons. While taking this course I came across many areas where I had no experience. There are many more legal issues that head coaches and administrators need to worry about than assistant coaches. Although I felt a lot of this course seemed like common sense, the particulars of having a plan in place if something were to happen was new to me. This course reviewed what to do in emergency situations, the maintenance required to upkeep a usable facility and the legalities if something bad were to happen while you were in charge as a coach. In some ways this course overwhelmed me. It really made me question what sports had turned into and the reason people participate in sports. The idea to go out and have fun playing a sport seemed like second hand when learning about all the safety precautions that need to be upheld now. It made me frustrated to learn that people can turn an amazingly fun event into a disaster because accidents and injuries happen in sports. After this course I feel I have become very aware of my surroundings and knowing a plan of action if an emergency happened while I was in charge. Recently I have started running my own clinics and I am sure to have the legal side covered for my professional safety before I teach lesson. It is unfortunate to me that sports have come to this, but I guess it is turning into a way of life.
Another course I found enlightening was KIN 856, Physical Bases of Coaching. Dr. Scott Riewald, who works at the Olympic Development Center out in Colorado Springs, taught this course. This course went in a full circle. We started by learning about how the body works, what muscles are needed for specific movements, to injury awareness, video analysis and back to skill breakdown using particular muscles. I found this course very useful with coaching. It made us sit back and figure out what muscles and movements were used in our sport. I learned a lot about body mechanics. Prior to this class I felt like I understood how the body worked, but after the class there was reason given to the movements as well. I also felt that this class was pertinent to me and my job. I was able to relate what we were learning in this course immediately out on the field. Dr. Riewald really wanted us to create information we could use in our careers and not just for the class. We also covered nutrition and mental preparation; two areas where I believe many athletes overlook to acquire excellence. Overall, in this course I was able to compile a folder of useful tools I can take with me and use while coaching. I really liked how the information we were creating was for future and immediate use.
Another course I found enlightening was KIN 856, Physical Bases of Coaching. Dr. Scott Riewald, who works at the Olympic Development Center out in Colorado Springs, taught this course. This course went in a full circle. We started by learning about how the body works, what muscles are needed for specific movements, to injury awareness, video analysis and back to skill breakdown using particular muscles. I found this course very useful with coaching. It made us sit back and figure out what muscles and movements were used in our sport. I learned a lot about body mechanics. Prior to this class I felt like I understood how the body worked, but after the class there was reason given to the movements as well. I also felt that this class was pertinent to me and my job. I was able to relate what we were learning in this course immediately out on the field. Dr. Riewald really wanted us to create information we could use in our careers and not just for the class. We also covered nutrition and mental preparation; two areas where I believe many athletes overlook to acquire excellence. Overall, in this course I was able to compile a folder of useful tools I can take with me and use while coaching. I really liked how the information we were creating was for future and immediate use.
Lastly, I would like to talk about one of the courses I took at the University of Virginia. The course was Sociology of Education taught by Dr. Eric Bredo. Entering this class, I was intimidated from the start. The reading for this course was rigorous. I knew I would have to stay on task each day or I would fall behind for the semester. Thankfully, I was able to keep up and read two wonderful books. The two books were "The Chosen" by Jerome Karabel and "Ain’t No Makin’ It" by Jay MacLeod. These books were written in what seemed like two different worlds. Karabel wrote about three main universities in the United States, Harvard, Yale and Princeton. He started with describing how these schools came about and elaborated into the selection process to get admitted to such sought after schools. Karabel enlightened the readers into the eyes of the elitist, the “struggles” the rich acquire. On the opposite spectrum, MacLeod described adolescents growing up in poverty, ghettos and projects. He tracks 15 teenage boys’ lives for eight years. He describes the boys’ hopes and dreams when they are younger and how they are shattered one way or another. He writes how there seems to be no escape to what you were born into. With those brief synopses of the two books, I hope it is easy to see how this course would be intriguing. This class really made me think. Is our society really like that? Do the elite stay the elite and the poor the poor? I had a hard time swallowing that concept. It made me want to change the world immediately. I feel this course really affected me personally. Since reading these books I feel I have adjusted my life. I try to understand more where people are coming from, instead of taking for granted where they are now. It does make me sit uneasy to hear about some of the processes into three of the top schools in our nation, equality is trying to be met, but it is very skewed to me. My hope is this course, along with my other courses will help embody me as a person and continue to help me grow.
Taking the final laps:
As my master’s degree is wrapping up, I am very pleased with
my overall experience and knowledge I will be taking away from it. Throughout this Capstone course I have really
been able to reflect on my past learning’s, reevaluate my goals and look into
what education will have for me in the future.
While taking this course I feel like I have had to ask myself some tough
questions about “what’s next”. Working
through my website slowly and discussing with other classmates has helped me
get direction after I have my degree.
Self-reflection has not always been easy for me and the Capstone course
has made it a smooth process to figure out my next steps professional and
educationally.
Victory lap:
Overall, obtaining my master's degree at Michigan State has been an amazing and fulfilling experience. If I knew it was going to be like this, I would have started sooner. The flexibility of online learning was a perfect fit for me. I feel very blessed and fortunate to be graduating in May while still being able to continue my life outside of schooling. I will soon have accomplished a great goal of mine that started many years ago. My experience has made me a better person as well as a better coach. Although I am in the home stretch of this race, I see many more exciting races in my future.
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