Senior athletic training major Kara Sapp came to Waynesburg from New Jersey because of three things.

“I chose Waynesburg because it gave me the option to not just study and be an athletic trainer and become one, but I also wanted to play volleyball and I was able to participate in a lot of different clubs on campus,” said Sapp.

Throughout her collegiate career, Sapp was on the volleyball team, in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Athletic Training Student Association and she was a Lamplighter. Being an athletic trainer and a volleyball player was tough, according to Sapp, but she was able to do both and enjoy them too.

“It took a lot of time management skills,” said Sapp. “There were multiple times when I had to sit down a week before and plan when I am going to clinical, when practices are and I had to communicate between [former] coach [Stephanie] Benkowski at the time and figure out ‘ok this is the time I am going to practice and this is the time I need to go to clinical.’ I had to skip a little practice time and go to clinical or vice versa depending on if I had a game or not.”

When she arrived at Waynesburg as a freshman, she wanted to see what the atmosphere was like, and according to her the team atmosphere was not good.

“When I got there, I was confronted with something that was very unlike what I thought,” said Sapp. “It was a very tough environment, it was very different than any other athletic experience that I have ever had, very hard and very tough. A lot of drama and a lot of intensity, but a lot of fun as well.”

Over her next three years, she said she loved her time with the team because she got to do a lot with her teammates and go to places she had never been before. Sapp said that she loved going to tournaments with her team and jamming out with them in the van, talking to them about “literally everything under the sun” and she loved the dig pink games.

“It was really awesome to take part in that with other people and be able to help others,” she said.

Sapp’s grandmother had breast cancer, which is why she loved raising money during the dig pink games. She also had friends who had family members battling breast cancer too. According to Sapp, it was hard to see her grandmother go through that and she wanted to be able to do everything that she could to help her and others with breast cancer.

“Whether it is your family or someone else’s, you just want to try and help them and one way you can is by raising money to be able to stop it as much as possible,” said Sapp.

For Sapp, there were two people who influenced and helped her throughout her collegiate volleyball career. Those two people were Benkowski and Dr. Randy Pettite.

“Two separate people influenced [my four years here with volleyball]—coach Benkowski played a big part in developing the player I am,” said Sapp. “I came in my freshman year very confused at the different volleyball techniques that I never heard of back in high school and she really developed me as a player to where I am confident now teaching other people how to play and I am confident in coaching other people now. Dr. Pettite played a huge in that he helped in all of our conditioning sessions and really helped push me to be a better athlete physically and mentally. He was always there for me and made me feel like someone cared about me, and so did coach Benkowski.”

Sapp has been accepted into a graduate school. She wants to attend and become an athletic trainer. She has not yet announced the name of the school because she is still looking at logistics.

“I think what made me unique is all of the different avenues I have been able to explore while being here,” said Sapp. “I did not just do my major, I didn’t just come and sit in my dorm and do nothing—I came in here and wanted to be a new person and wanted to become different and to grow as a human and I was able to.”