Allison Kirkby - Senior Reflection 2017

Carnegie Mellon initially attracted me because the school really values so many different types of passions and people. From just walking around on campus on a nice day, you see people playing tennis, hear music students rehearsing, and see friends doing homework on picnic tables or sketching on the cut. To me, there is something very inspiring about such a large group of differently talented people getting together on one campus to make both themselves and the world better.

This is also something I love about our swim team and the student-athletes at Carnegie Mellon. Although we may be focused on different majors and interests, we are all passionately taking part in collegiate athletics because we love our sport and our teammates. Although pursuing athletics at a rigorous school like Carnegie Mellon may seem like a daunting task, I know that being part of the athletic community has not only given me a family to lean on, but enriched my experience by helping me grow as a person and a leader.

The Carnegie Mellon community has allowed me to grow as a leader by surrounding me with driven people with different leading styles and providing me with opportunities to nurture my leadership skills. There are many chances to have your voice heard and speak up for your peers between major, university, and athletics student leadership councils. Particularly, through athletics, we are given the opportunity to attend leadership workshops where you can consider how much being a leader means to you and how to maximize your leadership talents. I truly believe that these programs have given me the opportunity to grow, not only in leadership skills, but also in leadership confidence, in my time as an undergraduate student-athlete at Carnegie Mellon.