STUDENT NEWS

PERFECT TRAINING: SCHREYER SCHOLAR STAYS WHERE THE ACTION IS

Lauren Haynie spends more time in the Bryce Jordan Center than she does in her apartment. That's one of the perks of being an athletic trainer for the Lady Lions Basketball team and the gymnastics team, says the 20-year-old senior majoring in kinesiology. "That's where the action is if you're an athletic trainer."

Haynie is enrolled in the athletic training option of the kinesiology program. This option provides a concentrated program of courses designed to prepare students for a career in the profession of athletic training. The courses are all designed to meet the standards necessary for professional certification by the National Athletic Training Association and legal certification by the Pennsylvania Physical Therapy Board as an athletic trainer. The classes are demanding, and the students log a lot of hours working with sports teams.

"It's like a full-time job when working with the teams. Athletic trainers are present at team practices, games and treatments so students in this program invest a lot of time in it," says Haynie. The resident of Washington, D.C. enjoys the rigors of the program. She has also worked with the State College Area High School track team and its ninth-grade boys' basketball team.

Haynie developed an interest in the profession while in high school. An avid sports fan, she took a course on athletic training at Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Maryland taught by Denise Kazimer, '93 ExSci. She researched programs around the country, including those at Yale and Johns Hopkins, but Lauren selected Penn State after visiting University Park.

"I wanted to come here as soon as I toured the campus," says Haynie. "Penn State has a top-rated kinesiology program and I just liked the students and faculty I met during my visit. It was an easy choice to make between attending Penn State, Yale or Johns Hopkins University."

In addition, Haynie is attending Penn State as a Schreyer Honors Scholar on a Bunton-Waller Fellows Scholarship. Schreyer Scholars are students who participate in Penn State's University-wide honors program. Schreyer Scholars enroll in small honors classes and seminars, conduct independent studies and research projects. As a culmination of study, Schreyer Scholars complete honors theses and receive honors degrees.

Haynie has never shirked away from challenging courses. She started attending Penn State as a 16-year-old freshman. She tested out of kindergarten and went from pre-school directly into first grade. She later tested out of sixth grade and advanced straight from fifth grade into seventh grade.

Her outstanding academic performance continues to this day. She graduates this spring with a 3.89 grade-point average, but she attributes her success to her parents and the outstanding faculty at the University.

"My work ethic was instilled in me by my mother and I get my sense of humor from my dad. It was the professors at the campus who have inspired me to handle the demands of being a Schreyers Scholar," says Haynie. "That's what motivates me to do my best every day."

Her instructors praise Lauren's devotion to her studies, too.

"Lauren is an outstanding student who is truly dedicated to her education and takes advantage of all opportunities to get the most from her studies," says Robert Ricketts, senior lecturer of kinesiology. "She has great interaction with her peers and even the graduate students in athletic training."

"I feel very confident that she will attend a graduate school of her choice and represent our undergraduate program in a professional manner. She has been a model student in the top 5 percent of all students I have come across in more than 23 years of teaching," compliments Ricketts.

A member of the Golden Key National Honors Society and the college's Honors Society, Haynie says that her first true test of what she learned in her classes occurred during an intramural softball game.

"The runner slid into the second baseman's arm while he was fielding the ball. It broke the second baseman's arm. It was my first semester covering a sports event so this was the first sports injury I encountered," says Haynie. "I felt it was a practical exam that tested my knowledge of what I was learning in the classroom. It was also an opportunity to see if this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life."

Haynie passed that practical exam with flying colors. She hopes to attend graduate school and to one day work as an athletic trainer in a high school or at small college. "I'm going to miss State College and the University a great deal after I graduate. This town and University provide such a sense of community that many large cities lack," says Haynie.