"On the Move" with Sara Wing

Sara Wing is a senior Architecture major and Engineering Minor from Chicago, IL and has been “on the move” since her arrival 4 years ago. Whether she is playing an Intramural or Club Basketball contest, helping the incoming Freshmen through the Orientation Leadership program, Sara has made quite an impact in our programs. We asked Sara to share her experiences with us. You have been an active participant in our Intramural and Club Sport Programs throughout your undergraduate years at Lehigh. Can you share what you have been involved in? Intramural and club sports have been one of my favorite extracurricular activities at Lehigh. As part of the Women’s Club Basketball team, which I have now served two years as President, we have carried a small team of competitive girls and have had tons of fun traveling to East Coast Women’s Basketball League Tournaments throughout Maryland, Connecticut and the tri-state area. I have also played on the Women’s Club Soccer team for the past three years. As part of The Rebels intramural women’s team, over the past four years our team has enjoyed competing in all the intramural sports that have been offered, including dodge ball, flag football, soccer, basketball, volleyball and the turkey trot. What other Campus activities or organizations are you currently or have been involved with? In addition to athletics, I have been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to serve as an Orientation Leader to the first year students for the past two years. I have served as a Brother At Large for two terms in Phi Sigma Pi National Honors Fraternity, which I joined as a freshman. I have sincerely enjoyed my involvement with the Community Service Office, volunteering at their year round events and growing into a more active citizen through numerous out-of-state alternative break Service trips that have benefitted Habitat for Humanity, Operation Breakthrough and other organizations. I have been a Lehigh Intramurals staff employee since my freshman year and have also immensely enjoyed tutoring sixth graders at Broughal Middle School through the America Reads and America Counts program for the past three years. This year I am part of the Dancin’ Club and am also looking forward to performing in the Vagina Monologues in the spring. Do you find it difficult being so involved? The only difficult part is narrowing down what to be involved in, because there are so many great and fun opportunities on campus! Keeping busy keeps me going and gives me things to work towards and look forward to. Being a Chicagoan, I enjoy living at a fast pace. I am a very reflective person and I make a deliberate decision to be involved because I want to, not because I feel obligated. Is it hard to keep up with your classes and grades, or do you feel that you balance them well? At times it is very difficult to balance classes and activities, especially during exam times and especially because the extracurriculars are usually more fun than studying! But, I make sure to remind myself that extracurriculars are a supplement to my academics. I carried over a lot of my time management skills from high school into college with me….Being a three-season athlete established a school, sports, study routine to which I have grown very accustomed. Campus involvement has helped me prioritize and designate blocks of time to completing certain tasks. I often find I don’t really know what to do with myself if I ever have extended periods of down time. How has participating in our Campus Athletics programs helped to enrich your college experience? Before beginning Lehigh, I decided not to commit to Varsity athletics and I was concerned that I wouldn’t have any comparable athletic outlets. However, immediately after beginning my first year I found my niche with my club sports teammates, who have become some of my best friends, and I have enjoyed being able to represent Lehigh, spend time, and compete with them through the campus athletics programs. We are fortunate as a University to have organized sports, and I depend on Campus Athletics to provide a mental and physical outlet during my college experience. How has our programs helped you to make connections and friendships with people that you otherwise probably would have never met? Being involved in university athletics enables the integration of anybody and everybody who is interested in sports and competing. Club sports draws like-minded people from all different majors and all different years-even grad students! I have met three of my best friends through athletics-one, who is in a different school than me, and two others were two years older than me and were also in different schools within the University. For our intramural team, we rounded up friends of friends of friend…..so, I know I would never have crossed paths with them otherwise. Through intramurals, in addition to the supervising staff there are usually a consistent group of people that sign up to compete in each sport, and they become familiar faces as the year goes on. What inspired you to become so involved? Personal development is a continuous process and something that is important to me. I appreciate change and the opportunities that force me out of my comfort zone. I get bored really fast, but more importantly I really enjoy learning new things and meeting people, hearing diverse opinions and having a voice in our community and those things that interest me. Involvement and personal interactions afford all the things I just mentioned, and they are key to personal growth and development. I always want to be better and strive for something bigger. The one piece of advice that so many people have given to me before I began college was, “Enjoy it, because it goes by really fast!” That advice, which I have found to be very true, prompted me to take advantage of all the great organizations and programs that are offered at this point in my life, opportunities that I know will not always be available to me. Do you think you've grown as a leader? Do you feel more confident in general? During my time here at Lehigh I think I have grown tremendously as a leader, and my confidence has increased tenfold. Upon entering college, I was the shy freshman who sat in the back of class, not really ever raising my hand or talking to anybody unless I had to. Due to my involvement, specifically with athletics programs and Orientation, I have learned how to facilitate, be a better listener and teammate, I’ve learned how to clearly voice my opinions in an unimposing way, and most importantly I’ve learned how to effectively use my voice and my actions to motivate people. Through all of my experiences this far that have helped developed my leadership, I’ve really grown to understand what it means to be committed and passionate. How do you think you will be able to apply these leadership skills in other areas such as the workplace and in everyday life? Effective communication and ability to work with a team are desirable attributes no matter who you are, or what you do. Effective leadership starts with mutual respect-respect for yourself and your teammates, co-workers, bosses etc. Applying leadership skills in the workplace and in life isn’t hard….. there is always an end goal, and the most efficient and enjoyable route in getting there is having the courage to take the initiative, then committing to implement leadership skills and knowledge to make a positive impact. What are your future plans? After graduation this spring, I plan to obtain valuable work experience and further my artistic endeavors. Once I have confidence in a choice of focus within my field, I plan to attend graduate school at the Art Institute of Chicago as part of their Interior Architecture or Designed Objects Master’s Program.

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