Interview with Ciara Durbin, St. Joseph’s University (Pennsylvania)

Interviewer: Today I am very excited to welcome Ciara Durbin, our first Saint Joseph student. I actually only applied to two colleges I was going to apply to the one I went to and that was it and my mom got really mad at me and said no, you’re applying to more than one because you’re not going to get in at Rochester. Saint Joseph’s was the other one, so I toured it and it was such a random school for me – like in terms of I had no idea what it was. Context aside, I am excited to have you joining Ciara.

You were a member of the field hockey team, you have a lot of other experiences, you’re studying physiology, and first question always just how you ended up at Saint Joseph’s. We’d love to hear about that journey and how you ended up there.

Ciara: Yeah, sure, so I was recruited to play Division I field hockey, I was kind of in the recruiting funnel for field hockey and had known about Saint Joe’s my whole life. I actually grew up in the Philadelphia area before I moved to just outside of Boston and my dad was to graduate here, my cousin went here, so I was always going to clinics at Saint Joe’s and was super familiar with the school because of my dad’s involvement and in my recruiting process. Saint Joe’s was the only school outside of the New England area I applied to. When we moved up there I loved it. I wanted to stay up there but Saint Joe’s is super competitive with field hockey so that drew me here as well. My knowledge of the school, the sense of community, and the size, um, were all really important to me. Also, attending a Jesuit institution was something that was always kind of in the back of my mind, my dad obviously having been here I kind of grew up like he was always quoting the Jesuits in some capacity, so I kind of learned the value of that and had a lot of friends and connections with the Jesuit community, and then I moved to Boston and was around BC as well, so I heard about the Jesuits through that school too. So ended up committing here my junior year of high school and it’s been great, it’s been a really awesome decision.

Interviewer: Oh, that’s really cool! So you kind of grew up in two higher education hubs like you’re just talking about there’s BC and Philly has a ton of schools.

Where’d you grow up specifically outside of Philly or around Philly?

Ciara: I grew up in Doylestown, so it’s about like 45 minutes to an hour outside of Philadelphia and I grew up in Doylestown and then all of my family, my parents, friends are down here.

Interviewer: And then obviously field hockey is a big pull for you and sounds like you had some good options because again, Division I is super competitive. What was recruiting like? You said you committed as a junior. Did you start talking to colleges before that?

Ciara: Yeah, so around the time that I was kind of looking at schools when all the rules were changing. Recruiting used to be a lot earlier than it is now. But my parents kept telling me to cast a wide net, so that’s kind of what I did and saw what stuck, saw what didn’t. But one thing that actually ended up helping me a lot in my recruiting process was everybody kept saying like, go to the school, you would be okay being hurt at, everybody tells you that. Go somewhere you can go if for some reason you can no longer play your sport there. A place you’re okay not being an athlete at. I feel like it’s everybody says that during the recruiting process and it ended up unfortunately, becoming my reality. I played field hockey so I came in my freshman year, got hurt my freshman pre-season, rehabbed the whole year came back for sophomore year and my doctor was like, yeah, you’re done. So I ended up having to stop playing field hockey which is unfortunately a lot of people’s stories when it gets to college athletics. You don’t hear of it as well but people battle injuries for four years in college, it’s super common, so I ended up in that exact situation and I’m really kind of grateful that I got that advice during my recruiting process. I think it can be so narrow-minded like yeah I want to play here and when you think about that you’re getting all of that feedback and you’re at the top of your game, you don’t really think about whether you want to go here with a lot less going on. I’m grateful I did consider that advice and I ended up at a place I was really happy at playing a sport and really happy at not playing a sport. So I’m super grateful for that too.

Interviewer: Im so sorry to hear that. It’s good advice but they jinxed you clearly! Kidding, but I’m sorry. But it sounds like it turned out great, and I mentioned that I applied there and I didn’t plan on it initially, but after visiting campus and never being there before because it’s kind of close to Villanova, I just remember driving to the campus the first time and I think it was the first campus I visited and it just blew me away. It’s gorgeous. And there’s so many beautiful colleges across the country, but no, I’m glad you’ve made that holistic decision where you focused on no matter what happens, like this is where I see myself.

So you get to St. Joseph’s and even if you’re familiar with the place, it’s a big transition. What was that transition like for you?

Ciara: It was definitely hard. My family was still living up in Boston at the time. My sister was a senior in high school. So it’s kind of navigating this on my own for far from my family, dealing with the injury and rehab. So that was hard. I was super homesick and I think the biggest advice I would kind of give to people in the adjustment process, not to like veer away from that question, but I think just jumping, full two feet into your college experience is going to be the best way to do it because there’s going to be ups and downs, but the more you push yourself into that first year, I think the more successful you’re going to be. I think I was holding on to high school and that part of my life. And had I just jumped two feet in, I think I would have been in a better situation. I would have adjusted quicker than I did, but I came out the other end of it, it just took me a little bit more time than it took some of my friends.

Interviewer: Yeah. There’s just a lot of learning and growth, no matter what happens to you. And it’s all unexpected. And again, being an ambitious, hardworking student and athlete, you can only prepare for so much. And then X, Y, and Z happens, kind of like we talked about. So we’re kind of on this community theme a bit. So we’ll just start there. I think it’s great to build on what you have already said.

What’s it like living in the area? What’s it like being a student there? How’s the community?

Ciara: Yeah, I love the community. I think, we’re such a small school, but we have such like big pride. And I think that’s super cool and super unique. What I particularly love about the community at St. Joe’s is the school actually doesn’t offer junior and senior housing. So a lot of us live off campus in the same neighborhoods in a town about 15 minutes away called Manayuk. And we all live like in the neighborhoods over there. And so your community, it’s like a little bit different. But I think the community, the St. Joe’s community kind of transcends just campus, which I think is really unique. We have communities where we live off campus, on campus. And it kind of makes it feel like you’re a step closer to like post-grad, and you kind of grow up through the school with the more responsibilities you have living off campus. And I mean, sophomore year, you start cooking for yourself, and then you live on your own with friends. So yeah, I think that’s pretty cool.

Interviewer: Yeah, the real-life side, like laundry and cleaning, which I’d say I was not as good at as I should have been. But I figured it out for sure. So are these are these neighborhoods kind of intermingled with families and professionals as well?

Ciara: Yeah, definitely. In Manayuk. Yeah, it’s not just like one St. Joe’s neighborhood, everybody kind of leases wherever they can get for renting and stuff. And it’s kind of cool, because then you get involved with the community as well. It’s not just college students, you’re meeting people who live there full time. I know that we have great neighbors in our area. So again, like stepping up into like post-grad and getting ready for the real world.

Interviewer: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Is there a lot of interaction between colleges and student bodies since they’re close by?

Ciara: Yes, and no, it kind of depends. A lot of it is like weekend activities, you’ll see a lot of Villanova kids in Manayuk on the weekends. And if you head into Philly, you’ll see like Drexel and UPenn as well. So there’s a bit of intermingling, a lot of rivalries. Philadelphia is kind of known for their college rivalries. So that’s kind of fun too, that that makes it like an even bigger community. So there’s micro-communities and then there’s bigger communities within the city just with other colleges too.

Interviewer: Yeah, healthy competition and healthy rivalries are always a good thing. You have the city close by like you mentionned, so I’m guessing there are multiple ways to get into the city. Is that something you guys do a lot?

Ciara: It kind of depends if there’s like activities going on in the city. I know the Eagles just won the Super Bowl, so gotta take a moment to highlight that. We actually got off school that day and provided like transportation into the city. The same with, we have like a public safety system that could take you into the city. So there’s lots of different ways to kind of move about the area too which is nice.

Interviewer: Yeah, for sure I think having access to places is so important especially junior or senior year, kind of the upper class and age range, everyone’s trying to get off of campus go to the beach, go to cities, whatever’s nearby.

The last question, just on the community, and I think it’s the first time I’ve heard of a lot of students living like that far off-campus. But what’s your favorite place on campus to hang out or go meet friends?

Ciara: Probably Sweeney Field, which is our main turf field on campus. It’s kind of in the center of campus, it’s surrounded by all of our school buildings and the athletic center. That’s why I say Sweeney because on warm days, everybody’s out like on the bleachers on the turf, practices are going on all day so that’s fun on the weekends as well, games. I just think it’s kind of like the heart of our campus, and it brings together so many different people either just wanting to sit outside or watching a big game. I think it’s my favorite place.

Interviewer: Oh, that’s cool! One thing I remember is the campus store and the book store, and the first time experiencing that and at a place like that, I wanted to buy everything. It just gives you a sense of the feel, and that’s the big thing when people are visiting schools or I keep talking about, I was blown away by how pretty the campus was sometimes you show up and you notice those things and you remember them and that’s why you want to go to those schools, or it’s the opposite, and you’re like, ‘I’m never going back there.’ I just think those insights are really helpful to students, so that’s why those questions kind of focus around that.

But shifting to physiology – first time I’ve gotten to talk about this, which is exciting! It’s an amazing thing to study. And, where did your interest in that start? Was it high school? Was your family involved in that industry? How did that begin?

Ciara: Yeah, that’s a good question. So my major is Exercise Physiology and my minor is Spanish, and I always joke that I took like a game, Twister, and just spun it around and picked the two that it landed on because they’re so not connected but they’re two things I love, and I guess that’s the benefit of going to a liberal arts Jesuit school you kind of get to pick, and so I ended up on exercise physiology in Spanish. I changed my major three times, so I started out as a undecided health studies, then I went to biology, and then I ended up on exercise physiology, so I kind of bounced around. I knew I wanted to do health; I love healthcare – that’s something I’ve kind of always been passionate about, and with my athletic background and my kind of knowledge of that field, I kind of found a way to combine them, so I ended up on a major I really like with professors I really like, and a support system that’s been really helpful. St. Joe’s has acquired a lot of different schools in the area recently, particularly in medicine, so our undergraduate nursing, ex-phys, OT, PT has grown so much in the past couple of years, and the resources for that have grown, so I’m really excited to be a part of that, so that’s been kind of great to go through that as St. Joe’s is also going through that, that’s so cool.

Interviewer: Yeah, the growth piece in an area where there’s, I mean, so many versions of every level of sport I can’t imagine how many job opportunities you have locally and in the city. But one highlight there just from a higher ed standpoint is how much time students have to try things and declare seven majors or whatever and change a million times.

Landing on these two areas what’s it been like getting connected with faculty or admins in those fields?

Ciara: I’ve had a really positive experience with the faculty here, particularly to highlight my major. My advisor is awesome; he’s the head of the department. He’s super available, super willing to talk about pretty much anything. His classes are all pretty much like lecture-based, and if we have a question, we spend the whole class on that, and he’s super willing to talk about pretty much that question. And having kind of that curiosity just being fueled by our professors has it’s really cool and I think a unique experience, and that was the benefit of exercise physiology. For me, versus something that’s like biology, I’ve had the opportunity to really explore what I’m curious in and what I want to do, and I think that’s kind of what drew me to that major as well, yeah.

Interviewer: It’s a lot, a lot of support, and I mean, the head of the department is always helpful; they know what’s going on because they’re involved, which is great. Are your goals kind of moving forward with internship or job experience? I know you’re at Lululemon now, which is actually a ridiculously legit business, I have a former colleague that worked there and it’s pretty crazy the upward trajectory you can experience even going from retail to corporate, so I don’t know if you’re pursuing that moving forward. But, with the physiology focus have you had career conversations with your advisor and with people in that area?

Ciara: Yeah, definitely. St. Joe’s has a direct entry for physical therapy and occupational therapy both doctorates. So that was something I was kind of considering in the beginning but as I’ve kind of grown in my major and had experiences kind of outside of school and thought more about what I would like my career to look like on a day-to-day basis, I’m kind of pursuing more business health care pharmaceutical that kind of realm. Which is kind of why Spanish helps because I would kind of want to live internationally, at some point, I’m kind of throwing a wide net and trying to learn as much as I can, and kind of see where I end up.

Interviewer: Yeah, you’re taking a lot of your advice to heart that you’ve gotten, which is good; I’ve never heard of ‘direct entry.’ Does that mean like automatic admission?

Ciara: Yeah, sorry that’s a great question; I should have specified. Direct entry is I forget if it’s three or four years, but or it might be: you get your undergrad in three and then you go right into the physical therapy program for two years so it’s like a five-year program that you just like, roll right into,  so yeah, you apply for that, when you apply for school.

Interviewer: And then obviously nothing’s guaranteed from a job standpoint, but after that, you have your doctorate, and there’s probably like strong placement for that specific career path; is that kind of how that works?

Ciara: Yeah, definitely. And there’s obviously a lot of research resources being in Philadelphia, a huge medical hub, so there’s lots of different opportunities.

Interviewer: To kind of explore more, what are some of the extracurricular opportunities you have pursued? I know I keep mentioning Lululemon but what are the jobs that you’ve had in different internships?

Ciara: Yeah so I work at Lululemon which my boss said the other day we are a people development company that sells black stretchy pants and that kind of stuck with me because that’s kind of true about the job experience so I’m part-time there and I really enjoy it. That keeps me really busy obviously with school as well and then as far as extracurriculars I studied abroad in the fall which I’m not sure if that’s an extracurricular but something I had always considered um doing and with choosing Division I field hockey, I thought I would lose that opportunity but then with my injury it presented itself that I was able to travel abroad so I was in Florence, Italy this past fall and I loved it that was a super amazing experience and something that kind of just fueled me to want to keep pursuing opportunities abroad I’m actually spending six months in a leadership and public health program so I’m super excited for that. I think just I’m trying to figure out what I want and to do that you have to throw yourself into as many things as you can and pull what you can from it so that’s been huge. I’m just trying to do as much as I can, and take as much as I can from whatever I’m doing.

Interviewer: Yeah that’s great and on that note, you said you’re studying business development and policy, is that abroad through St. Joseph’s, or is this like a different program that you’re doing?

Ciara: This is a different program, it’s called D.I.S., it’s like a school in both, they have campuses in Copenhagen and Stockholm, so I’m going to be studying on both their campuses, those two courses, which I’m super excited about, I think it’s a good opportunity for me to keep like broadening my network and kind of figuring out next steps for me and what I want where I want to live and what I want to do.

Interviewer: Is D.I.S. linked to St Joe’s at all or is it completely independent?

Ciara: St Joe’s has programs through DIS, but DIS runs the program not St Joe’s but they collaborate.

Interviewer: Okay that makes sense and back to that outlier-Spanish interest, is that influencing where you are hoping to live internationally?

Ciara: Yes and no, everybody says to me, ‘Oh well, you’re studying Spanish’ but you lived in Italy and you’re studying Spanish but now you’re going to Copenhagen Stockholm. I’m like, yeah, that’s the more I know the better, I think. Spanish has been a love of mine for a long time, I’ve taken it for many years, and I’ve just, I really enjoy it, and it’s super challenging being bilingual and having conversations in two languages is always something, it’s more of a passion than anything else. It just happens to kind of look good on a resume. So it’s less influencing where I want to go, more just something I’ve always wanted to do.

Interviewer: Yeah. So through this entire process, because you’ve done a lot more searching than I think most students at this stage, which I think is so important. You’ve had to realign and readjust in so many ways through some of the things you’ve talked about in your story. Is there one thing that’s allowed you to do that? Either a skill or a mindset that’s helped you feel successful in exploring all these new things?

Ciara: I think my parents always given helpful advice, my mom was big on pivoting. Like, and my dad had this 24-hour rule. You could get great advice, be happy for 24 hours. You could get the worst advice, be sad for 24 hours. And then you move on, you figure it out. Whether it’s moving on in a positive way or just pivoting to something else. So that kind of mindset was huge growing up with athletics. Like you’re always pivoting and I always try and have a plan A, B and C. And that’s kind of allowed me to just keep going there. It’s not a setback, just like a redirection. So always like being able to figure something else out and pull something else together has helped me a lot in this process.

Interviewer: Sounds like your parents know you really well and they’ve supported you in a lot of ways. And their advice is spot on for athletes, people that want to go in the workforce, start their own company. But no, I think we’ve really touched on what it’s like being a student there, what the process was like. I actually had an interview with a field hockey player from Duke and it was the same age range. So I think the commitment was like early high school or something similar to what you were saying. So yeah, all these moving pieces and your exploration, I think is a cool theme in our conversation where you’re just considering things, trying all these different things. You have a really cool opportunity this summer, which I think is going to be amazing. And then you’ll just come back refreshed with more information and you’ll probably pick up some other language over there while you’re there too. But yeah, all the context to say there’s one final question that I’d love to end on. You probably saw it and you’ve given like way more advice than anyone else.

So if you don’t have more, but what’s like your biggest tip for making the most of undergrad?

Ciara: Yeah. Just like do as much as you can. Obviously I feel like I try and I say that and I try and live it in my day to day. And there isn’t one path. I have friends who came into college and they knew exactly what they wanted and they’ve done everything to get that. And I was kind of more uncertain. I didn’t really know, but I think I’ve done everything to kind of get there too. And with not having, I mean, I’m going to say I’m not having like a traditional internship this summer going into my senior year. I think that would cause a lot of people anxiety. And in the past, had I known that I’d be like, ‘wait, oh my gosh’, but I think there’s so many different ways to get where you want to go. And looking left and looking right, doesn’t it doesn’t mean they’re doing it better. They’re just doing it differently. And if you keep aligning yourself with what you want and keep working to find what you want, you’re going to get there, and it doesn’t really matter how you get there. Just that you do.

Interviewer: Yeah. That’s very good advice. I mean, it was a long time ago, but I can think back to first, first year I’m trying to take this math class didn’t go well. And my strength was in history and English, which is what I ended up doing, but I didn’t know what to do with that. And then you have all these other kids that come in and day one, it’s like, I’m going into finance and pre-med and pre-law. I’m like, how do you know you want to go to grad school already? And maybe they didn’t. And I just probably thought about it way too much. So yeah, I think being adaptable, exploring all those things and focusing on your interests is really important. So very good advice. We’ll end there just because we’ve covered so much, in such little time. Yeah. Well, I’ll just end with another huge thank you. I appreciate the time. This was an amazing conversation.

Ciara: Yeah. Thank you too. I’m happy to do it.

Interviewer: Awesome.