Students within the Michigan State University Department of Kinesiology coordinated the annual Midwest Sport and Exercise Psychology Symposium this winter. Following approval from MSU on Feb. 1 to host the conference in person, the student organizers had less than three weeks to set the program, solicit and review presentation abstracts, advertise and oversee registrations before the February 25-26 event.
“Throughout the planning process, we tried to build off concepts from sport psychology,” said Alysha Matthews, a Kinesiology doctoral student and one of the event co-chairs. “We wanted to outline clear, distinct roles, to have leadership in place but to also understand and appreciate that all involved played a key role.”
One hundred and fifty students and faculty from universities throughout the Midwest attended the event. For many, it was the first in-person conference they had attended since March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nicole LaVoi, director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota, opened the event with a keynote speech on inequities that exist relative to the lack of women coaches and administrators hired in sport. LaVoi hopes to change the current status of underrepresentation of girls and women in sport, and lobbies for policies that will facilitate getting more women involved in coaching and leadership positions.
“We wanted to have a strong focus on diversity, equity and inclusion,” said Kylee Ault, a Kinesiology doctoral student and one of the event co-chairs. “We made an effort to have diverse topics covered and share studies done with diverse populations.”
Presentations topics throughout the conference included sport programs for youth within the justice system, athlete activism, body inclusiveness in exercise spaces and girls’ voices in sport. Presenters were all students, including several undergraduates.
The conference also featured a panel discussion on how graduate students can develop their research, teaching and knowledge application skills, which included MSU Assistant Professor Shelby Baez as a panelist.
“‘Pay it forward’ is something we try to practice in the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports,” said Matthews who, along with Ault and many of the other event coordinators, works in the Institute. “We wanted to lead organizing this conference to give back to the community that has developed us. Now, we’re ready … When we become professors and practitioners, we can continue helping empower others.”
The Spartan event coordinators were:
- Alysha Matthews (co-chair), doctoral student
- Kylee Ault (co-chair), doctoral student
- Lauren Secaras, doctoral student
- Meredith Wekesser, doctoral student
- Chelsi Ricketts, doctoral student
- Sarah Saxton, master’s student
- Hannah Miller, master’s student
- Jordan Rademacher, master’s student
- Ben Zaleski, undergraduate student
Ault and Matthews, who had attended the event previously, agree one of the best parts of the planning process was adding contributions to the growing field—and connecting with those who are just beginning their careers and work in kinesiology, sport and exercise psychology.
“It was a really fun and rewarding experience,” said Ben Zaleski, a senior majoring in Kinesiology who was also part of the coordination team. “The symposium was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had as a Spartan.”
Portions of this story were written by Dan Gould and Kylee Ault.