Graduating Student-Athlete Profile: Emma Smith

ES: Bachelor's of Science in Natural Sciences with a specialization in Health Science. I also have minors in Philosophy, Religious Studies and Medical Humanities. 

ES: Nights in the hotel rooms on tournament weekends always produced funny, lifelong memories. All 10 of us would stuff into one room to just hang out and sing Fifty Nifty United States, or switching channels between Bluey, March Madness or robot fighting. Also, getting to experience my last tournament surrounded by the cheering of current and past teammates, as well as friends, family and TJ, was a sweet wrap up to my time as a student-athlete. 

ES: I came into Daemen focused on my major and academics, knowing it was a smaller school, so those relationships I was to make were going to be important. What I did not expect is how many different relationships I would form due to the different groups I got involved with on campus. This last year, specifically, was the most diverse I have had and it is sad that I have to say goodbye when things were going so good. 

ES: Talking about the important relationships I built over the past four years, I will miss having the excuse of classes and events to be around them. There is always someone to run into on campus and have a conversation, which will be much harder to do when that location changes. Those conversations will become more spaced out and less often, which will be a change to deal with. 

ES: Winning the Wilmington Invitational two years ago and doing so in roll-off format was the most exciting team experience I have had to date, especially considering it was with my best friends. It was a high scoring weekend, and winning put us in a position to be nationally ranked and seen as a threat. The excitement I felt from myself and throughout the team from that point until the end of the season was the point I always aspire to achieve again. 

ES: I have experienced a lot of growth throughout college, but particularly in the last year as things took a sharp left turn. Throughout this time, coach Nathan Huckle was added onto the Daemen Athletics staff to help out as a mental health performance specialist. It started out with just attending his mental strengthening sessions in the fall, but I was also able to meet with him one-on-one to not only talk about the team, but my own aspirations after college as well. He has helped me through my last year competing and how to best assist my new teammates and to strengthen my own mental toughness. I have been working on that and it really paid off at the end of the season. Talking with him helped plan what my place in sports could like. He is someone I will never stop recommending to my team and other athletes at Daemen for the help he gave me. As I leave Daemen, I feel stronger than ever, and coach Huckle has a lot to do with that feeling. His position is one I hope to find myself in and it is an emerging, important role in collegiate athletics for every sport. 

ES: I am taking a trip to Ireland in the fall to get some traveling in before starting a Master's Degree program in counseling and further study of sport psychology. 

ES: While being a small school, Daemen has some great people on campus who can be a resource and a shoulder to lean on. Join different organizations, meet different people and get involved and that will help you to feel more connected, especially as a commuter.