Name: Shea McMurtry
Year: Sophomore
Major: Pre-Athletic Training
Fun Fact: I’ve been to New Zealand.
Shea’s on the left.
Her Campus: What activities are you involved in on campus?
Shea McMurtry: I am on the e-board for Pitt Club Cross Country. I am involved in starting 70 Faces magazine. I am an EMT. I’m in the athletic training club, although I’m not super involved in that one. I play intramural volleyball and basketball. I volunteer at the sports medicine hospital.
HC: With so many activities, how do you find time to study and relax?
SM: It took me a while to figure that out. I also learned how to manage my time in high school when I played two competitive sports and two high school sports all in one season. I played cross-country, volleyball, soccer and track, but track was a different season. In high school, I learned to make a schedule and plan out my week.
HC: How do your high school habits translate to your college lifestyle?SM: My habits have gotten much better since high school, and they’ve really helped me be better organized and manage my time so that I have time to do everything, or almost everything. I’ve also learned a lot of leadership skills through being a captain of track and cross country in high school, and now with being on e-board of cross country.
HC: How will these skills help you later in life?
SM: My leadership skill will help me with public speaking. It’ll help me be more comfortable and assert my ideas, and help me be more successful in life.
HC: What are your future plans?
SM: Good question. I know I want to go to grad school, either for sports medicine or prosthetics and orthotics, and I know I want to be involved in research. I want to be able to raise awareness for the need for sports research to create new technology that will help prevent injuries and to better understand why these injuries occur. I’ve always known I wanted to do something in the athletic training field; I got interested in it because by the age of 13 I had broken bones and torn ligaments so I was well accustomed to being an injured athlete. By that time, I was already taping everyone’s ankles and being a team trainer. And I found my passion for orthotics and prosthetics in my introduction class and after touring the Human Engineering Research Lab and seeing the impact I can make on people’s lives.
HC: How will your activities help with these future plans?
SM: All the sports have helped me have an understanding and mindset to work with the athletes and almost be in their place, because I’ve been on both sides of physical therapy and athletic training. I’ve been hurt and I’ve also been the one that’s helping the physical therapists and athletic trainers. I think leadership in cross country will help because being able to speak and have public relations is important field, and when you’re involved in research you need to be able to give presentations and have connections to ask for research so it’s extremely important to have those skills.
Image credit: Image provided by Celeb.