Paralympic female athletes

    I just read the most fascinating article in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology.  The authors did research on good coaching attributes from the perspective of current and retired Paralympic female athletes.  They interviewed 8 Canadian Paralympic female athletes who had an impressive average record of competing in 4 Paralympics and winning 8 Paralympic or Pan Am medals (Alexander et al., 2020) 

    The findings were so interesting. Positive coaching behaviors were those that improved athletic performance or well-being, and included supporting the athletes on a personal level, improving performance by transmitting important and innovative knowledge.  The negative behaviors were those that hurt their performance or well-being.  Those included addressing their gender or their disability inappropriately (Alexander, 2020).  The inappropriate gender references is where I come in. 

    The athletes also had coaching preferences.  For example, some liked their coaches to be creative, others liked when the coach transferred able-body knowledge to the parasport context.  Some mentioned the need for female coaches, but recognizing it would be unfeasible due to their scarcity.  The authors make brilliant theoretical contributions, practical implications and suggestions for future research based on their study's limitations (Alexander, 2020).  I highly recommend you to read the article on your own if you are interested in getting more detailed information. 

    Now to the nitty-gritty.  Some research participants were routinely slapped on the butt.  This in addition to their gender being addressed inappropriately (Alexander, 2020).  The authors cite research stating people with disabilities are more likely to be mistreated, and women are more likely to be harassed (Kirby et al., 2008; Wachsmuth et al., 2017, as cited in Alexander, 2020).  Research also shows gender and sexual minorities are harassed disproportionately in sports (Kokkonen, 2019).  So sexual minorities (think GLBTQIA+) with disabilities are in double jeopardy.  

    As our future leaders in the sport industry, you should not just be up to date with the most recent literature in marketing and management.   You should also read the sociology, psychology, and other sport sciences literature to be well rounded.  It is your job as a citizen of the world to be socially responsible and know statistics like the ones mentioned here.  After knowing they are more vulnerable to mistreatment, I hope you would now be more likely to treat your superiors, peers, subordinates, clients, etc with respect if they have any of the characteristics mentioned here.  I also encourage you to be a proactive bystander and report or intervene when you witness incivilities towards them. 


Alexander, D., Bloom, G. A., & Taylor, S. L. (2020). Female Paralympic athlete views of effective and ineffective coaching practices. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology: Psychology of Sports Coaching, 32(1), 48-63. doi:10.1080/10413200.2018.1543735


Kokkonen, M. (2019). Associations between sexual and gender-based harassment by a coach and psychological ill-being amongst gender and sexual minority sport participants in Finland. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 13(2), 259-273. doi:10.1123/jcsp.2018-0035

How can I help?

        Just like Todd Winn, I also want to silence my privileged voice.  I may not be as privileged as White, able-bodied, middle-class, heterosexual, Christian men (Goodman, 2001). You see me.  You see my gender.  You see my brownness.  You hear my accent and my broken English at times (Take the mis-spelling in my picture as an example.  Someone pointed it out to me. It was not intentional).  I stick out like a sore thumb when I walk into a room; and I know, that whether I like it or not, there may be some people there who are uncomfortable by my mere presence.  They will feel better if I "went back to where I came from", or quit "taking jobs away form hard working Americans".  Well, as a highly educated, employed, brown, middle class, English-speaking, green-card holder, protestant, I recognize my privilege and thank the good Lord for it.  

    I also see this troubled times are not about women, and not about brown people, and not about immigrants.  Right now is about our Black brothers and sisters, many of whom are my students and fellow professors and staff members.  They are suffering deep in their soul with a pain I pray I may never understand.  It is about standing with them, or kneeling, or taping our mouths, as the case may be.  It is about listening.  It is about stepping back and putting our wants aside for their sake, and the sake of this great country.  A wise, wise book reads: "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand" (Mark 3:24).  So how about we unite?  If we can't show support without compromising our values,  maybe we need to reevaluate them.  Here is one gamers perspective on it. 

    As a non-black, supporting the Black Lives Matter movement in social media is not enough.  So tell me how I can help you make my classroom and my office environments where you can thrive and feel safe in these trying times, Black students and White students alike.  Black students, how can I help you feel heard and supported?  White students, how can I help you hear you Black peers without hurting you or putting you on the defensive? Help me answer the question "How can I help?" 

Goodman, D. J. (2001). About privileged groups. In Winter Roundtable Series: Promoting diversity and social justice: Educating people from privileged groups (pp. 13-36). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781452220468.n2 SAGE Books - About Privileged Groups

Meet your prof

    This post does not have anything to do with school or advising, but hopefully it will help some of you relate to your profs.  

Do you know what your professors are up to? Well, I do not know what everyone else does outside school, but I can tell you what I do.  I am a follower of Christ, a wife, mother of 3 children and 2 pups. My oldest is all grown up and out of the house. My two youngest are girls, and they are toddlers now (Natalia, 4 is pictured above). I try to spend every minute I can with my husband and the kids. I read the Bible in Spanish every morning, record it, and upload it to SoundCloud and Facebook.  You know what is interesting? I understand it at a different level when I read it in my mother tongue. I am sure there is research on that. 

    Speaking of research, I am sure you have probably seen me bare my soul in a lesson (or a video, if you are an online student), or a few, over a semester, or a few.  If you haven't yet, go find one of my research articles. I am not sure I can tell you enough times how passionate I am about studying sexual harassment, its impact, causes, triggers, and possible interventions before and after it happens. I mostly study it in the context of sport, but I occasionally step out when I see an opportunity to make a statement or have positive impact.  Talk about baring my soul! I do it some more there. 

    I look forward to getting to know all of you, not just my advisees, more in depth. Please take advantage of my office hours and any and all other opportunities for interaction.  If you want to connect on social media, you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  The Sport Management Club is another wonderful resource to get to know the Sport Management Faculty and your peers. You will also learn about cool volunteer and internship opportunities coming up.  What about you? What are you up to? 

Choosing your major

Everyday I get to come to work is a blessing, and that is how I want you to feel too.  Imagine if you get to do what you love every day, and you even get money for doing it?!?!  I have been thinking about how to help you get there.

I remember when I used to lose sleep over picking my major. I was paralyzed in fear. I felt like the rest of my life was at stake, and it was as big a decision as getting married, or having children.  Well intentioned people had so many suggestions.  My uncle wanted me to be an accountant, my mom wanted me to go into medicine, my dad though, he asked me: What do YOU want to do? and once I decided he was my biggest cheerleader!

Figuring it out seemed daunting, but it was actually surprisingly simple.  It was not easy, and doubt creeped in occasionally, but it was simple.  In this blog post I will share three tips for choosing a major: 1) know yourself, 2) know the job, and 3) find a cheerleader.

1) Know yourself
There are many personality tests that can help you identify what you enjoy doing, your God given gifts, or tasks that come easy to you.  You should think about taking them.  Some of them cost money but are well established and used often, like the Myers-Briggs personality type test, the DISC assessment, or strength finder.  There are also some free resources to get your started. like the limited free version DISC test, or this quiz.  I am unfamiliar with this college, but sport management ranked 4th, so the quiz is somewhat accurate.  Finally, if you want a quick assessment you can do right now you may want to answer Christy Wright's 5 E questions.
1) What do you ENJOY doing?
2) What comes EASY to you?
3) What do you EXCEL at?
4) What do other people ENCOURAGE you to do?
5) What ENERGIZES you?
You may have more than one answer to each question, but chances are there is something(s) that appears multiple times.  That would be a good starting point.

2) Know the job
My very artsy teen, who is not particularly interested in math would excel as an art major. After doing some research on salaries, he realized he did not like art enough to sacrifice the lifestyle he wants. So he moved on to research professions that "are" better (in his 15 year old mind). So he announced he was going to be an electrical engineer.  When my husband asked him what types of jobs he would do his response was: "I don't know, change lightbulbs?"  Clearly he focused his research on salaries, and paid no attention to course requirements or job descriptions.  Needless to say, electrical engineering got crossed off the list once he realized it went past changing lightbulbs and the amount of math that was going to be involved. Here is what I recommend you to look into when picking a major:
1) Job descriptions - does the job align fit your personality?
2) Course requirements - Do the classes in the major play to your strengths? You can look at your university's undergraduate (or graduate) bulletin for this.  Here is the one for A-State.
3) Potential earnings - Will this job be able to support.your lifestyle?
4) Unemployment rates - This will help you determine how hard it will be to find a job upon graduation.

3) Find a cheerleader - or many!
College can be challenging at times, no matter your major.  You may.get discouraged, doubt yourself, or need a little push.  Sometimes you may not even remember how that major plays to your strengths, or why you thought you would enjoy it. Take a second to think back and talk to people who support you and are in a position to advise you before you drop out or drift off to another major.  Your decisions need to be purposeful and deliberate so you do not graduate not knowing what to do with your degree. If you have any questions reach out, hopefully we (either me or someone in this community) can help.

In conclusion, Choosing a major can be a daunting task.  You need to first try to figure yourself out to the best of your ability, that way you can find a major that plays to your strengths and fits your personality.  Finally, we all doubt ourselves, specially in such important decisions, so surround . yourself with people who know you and can advise you wisely.

Welcome to college survival

Welcome welcome!

Exciting stuff is going on that is leading to the start of this blog.  This is a blog created to help disseminate information to my A-State advisees, but really all prospective, current, and maybe even former college students out there that need a little push, advise, perspective, or support.  I am excited to be here for you.

You might be a proactive high school student looking for ways to get the best out of college, or maybe you do not know where to to start, so you googled and stumbled across this blog.  Maybe you are a parent looking for some resources for your children. Maybe you are already in college and think you picked the wrong major, or need some motivation, or have forgotten why you thought this was a good idea in the first place.  You may even already be a professional and just want some resources to stay on top of your work.  Either way, this blog is for you.  I hope to encourage you, be helpful, give you some perspective, and start a virtual community to rally around you and support you.

In this blog you will encounter posts regarding sport management (as that is the major I advise), but also general college and professional advise.  The content will range from picking your major, to deciding to stay in a major, getting the most out of your classes, internship advise, career advice, among others. I am by no means an experts in all of those areas, but I will do my best, and I trust that the community that will subscribe to this blog will also provide valuable insight and information we can all use.

So, why are you here? are you a high school student, parent, college student, or college graduate? And what type of posts would you find most helpful?