Going Global

As the Miami Skating team comes back to campus this month to begin preparing for the 2022-23 season, there are sure to be plenty of photos, stories, and experiences to share from a summer spent scattered around the country.

For several of the RedHawk skaters, those memories from the summer of 2022 will have a distinctly international flair.

Whether studying abroad, attending a conference, or completing an internship, at least five different Miami student-athletes from the senior and collegiate synchronized skating teams spent time outside the United States since the end of the spring semester furthering their academic (and eventual career) pursuits.

From Italy to Israel, from Europe to Everest, each of these skaters had a summer they will never forget.

Katie Nay, a senior International Studies and Sustainability major, spent about five weeks studying at Sant'Anna Institute in Sorrento, Italy. Her classes included Intro to Marine Biology as well as Competing in the Global Environment, and she especially enjoyed the ocean-focused course.

"The school looks over the Mediterranean Sea – you're right there," Nay said. "It was cool to learn from the professor's perspective, someone who lives so close and has an emotional connection to the sea."

Natalie Mispagel — *Mispagel in Denmark*

Alyson Everett, a senior Data Science and Statistics major, was also in Italy for a month as part of Miami's Knowledge and Ethics trip. Everett was one of two dozen students participating in courses at the University of Calabria. "We were learning how to do things like teach a computer how to solve sudokus and logic puzzles," she said. "I found that very interesting!"

Around the time Everett was returning to North America, teammate Natalie Mispagel was heading the opposite direction for her first-ever trip overseas. Mispagel, a junior Accountancy and Finance major, was invited by KPMG to attend a leadership conference for a week in Copenhagen, Denmark. Mispagel is set to intern with KPMG next summer, and enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about what the Big Four accounting firm does for its clients.

"At the conference, I learned how to better interact with different leadership styles and how to change my leadership style to be a more effective leader in the community and in the workplace," said Mispagel.

While Mispagel hasn't started her internship yet, Sammie Levine's is already over. Levine was in Tel Aviv, Israel from late May to mid-July interning for a health tech startup as part of the Onward Israel program. The company has an A.I. technology that's used to detect mental distress online and in social media.

"As a Psychology major, I'm really passionate about mental health, and I get to learn about that," Levine said. "But I also did a lot of business development, so I'm learning more about the business side: How can I be impactful in terms of conversations about mental health and reaching people in the corporate world?"

About 3,000 miles further east, Alyssa Schmuecker, a senior Kinesiology major, spent nearly three weeks in Nepal. The trip involved a 12-day trek studying life at altitude. "Very early last semester, my professor presented about this trip. As soon as I heard about it, I was like, 'I'm doing that! No ifs, ands or buts.'" Schmuecker said. She had previously been scheduled to travel to Gambia to study abroad, but that trip was canceled three different times during the pandemic.

Alyssa Schmuecker — *Schmuecker in Nepal*

Schmuecker's group traveled through the Thorong La Pass, which, at 5,416 meters high (almost 18,000 feet!), has an elevation above that of base camp at nearby Mount Everest. They stayed in tea houses along the route each night and sent their duffel bags ahead on mules to the next stop each morning.

"The point was just to escape, and to challenge yourself mentally and physically," said Schmuecker. "[It was about] learning to take it slow and just take in everything around you.

"You're so secluded from your everyday life and what we're all used to, and then you also learn a lot about how your body adjusts to the altitude as you're going up."

On her way back to the United States, Schmuecker was able to arrange an extended layover in Italy so she could spend some time visiting Nay. That wasn't the only guest Nay entertained in Sorrento this summer, however; Everett also stopped in for a weekend.

"Aly brought a group of people, and then we took a boat tour around Capri and just hung out there all day," said Nay. "That was really fun; I got to say, 'Look at this place I'm in', as if I was the expert because I'd been there for two weeks!"

Aly Everett and Katie Nay — *(From L-R) Everett and Nay in Italy*

Everett said one of the things she enjoyed most about traveling with Miami students was getting to develop better relationships with classmates. "Everyone broke out into their own roles," she said, "sort of like a team. I'm good with navigating, so when we'd go places, I would lead the way. One person was good with speaking Italian, so he would translate. Another person was able to figure out the trains really well.

"We all found our way to work together toward what we wanted."

Most of the skaters did not have the opportunity to get on the ice at all during their free time overseas. In Israel, Levine was the lone exception. "It was about an hour and a half commute one way, but I didn't agree to going abroad unless I knew I would have access to an ice rink, so I made it work!", she laughed. "It's been relaxing…I feel like skating by myself has been a great chance to just fall in love with skating all over again.

"As a Division I and Team USA athlete, things are high pressure and we're training so hard all the time, but skating [in Israel] in the summer while also enjoying and exploring gave me a chance to just be a kid on the ice and just like being out there."

Levine actually ended up getting to coach two different skating classes during her time in Tel Aviv, passing on some of what she's learned at Miami to younger students.

Sammie Levine — *Levine (second from left) in Israel*

"I was introducing different elements of synchronized skating to kids who have never tried it before," Levine explained. "Helping them learn how to skate next to someone, how to stay connected, and how to do different elements.

"There was a pretty big language barrier, but it was cool to see how much we could learn from each other just in demonstrating and learning new ways to communicate with my students that weren't through words."

Each of the Miami student-athletes had to make some level of adjustment as they got familiar with life in a different culture. Whether it was not knowing the language, seeing monkeys randomly climbing across power lines, trying new foods, or even simply learning to relax for a long, drawn-out, multi-course meal, things were just…different.

Schmuecker said her experience in Nepal gave her a new perspective, and she appreciated the assignment to journal about what she learned each day. "Just realizing how differently people live across the globe…you don't really know it until you experience it," she said. "We didn't know how often we would have Wi-Fi or power at some of the tea houses, and I started to notice during the trek that I would get kind of disappointed when we had Wi-Fi, because it was such a nice escape."

Nay used the word 'life-changing' as she looked back at her summer travels. "You come back and you're different," Nay said. "I just feel like I have a better understanding of not only that place, but also as an American – my place in the world too…

"I just think it's the most worthwhile thing you can do."

The skaters hope to bring home the myriad of lessons they learned and apply them during the RedHawks' upcoming season. Levine said her summer in Israel especially taught her flexibility and how to 'roll with the punches,' so to speak. "I've learned that I can't control everything that's going to happen…but things that might have once taken me a long time to recover from, I now know how to problem-solve, or how to fix."

Mispagel's biggest takeaway from the Copenhagen conference was understanding how to best interact with others. "We all learn very differently and take criticism in different ways," she said. "I want to bring that on the ice by helping my teammates with understanding my social style in perspective with theirs and then putting those together so that we'll have another successful season this year…

"I'm just really thankful that Miami Skating has given me the opportunity to pursue academics while also pursuing skating. It's been a great combination."

Find more Front Row Features at MiamiRedHawks.com/FrontRowFeatures.

Interested in making a donation to the Vicki Korn Fund? Please click here or contact Assistant Vice President for Development Dr. Jeff Porter at jporter@miamioh.edu to learn how you can get involved and support Miami Skating.

Players Mentioned

Alyson Everett

Sammie Levine

Natalie Mispagel

Katie Nay

Alyssa Schmuecker

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