Kayla Irlbeck
Utah State University

Please provide a statement of your personal views on the role and contributions of collegiate recreation in higher education. In your response describe how collegiate recreation has influenced your development.

Collegiate Recreation is a place where students, faculty, and staff can go to feel safe and get a chance to develop parts of them that they do not get to during the traditional college experience. Campus Recreation has an inclusive, equitable, and healthy-lifestyle promoting culture that provides all different demographics of people with an outlet to relieve stress, make new connections, find themselves, and develop skills that will help them move forward in life. Personally, collegiate recreation has been the place that I have found lifelong friends, mentors, and a career that I love. It has not only been a space where I have felt supported 100 percent of the time, but it is also a place where I have been pushed to become a better communicator, most open person, and a stronger leader. These skills help me daily not only in my job, but also as a person. The best part about collegiate recreation is that it gives you a chance outside of the classroom to develop physically, mentally, and emotionally in a setting that promotes a growth mindset.

Within the context of the NIRSA Strategic Plan, what area/item would you say is a major issue students face today? Please identify a student-driven issue that we are currently facing today and how you would like to address this during your term. How will you create solutions in your role on the Student Leadership Team to address it?

The NIRSA strategic plan highlights many important values that are intricate to running successful recreation programs. I want to focus on NIRSA’s goal to be an equitable, diverse, and inclusive place because this is personal to me. Working in competitive sports as a woman, I get a taste of what it can feel like to not feel included and welcome in an atmosphere as both as a staff member and as a participant. Already here at Utah State I have started many initiatives within my staff to promote the support of women in campus recreation. I understand that I still have a lot of other privileges, so I want to work together with NIRSA to recognize the privileges we each have, and to see what we can do to help bring equity to others. Across not the only the regions, but across the country there will always be a diverse student body that we want to serve. As a leader, I would work together with other universities to identify common vulnerable populations within campus recreation and would work to brainstorm solutions. I would also continue to be a huge advocate for gender inclusion by personally sharing my experiences and making sure I was a resource to listen to others share their testimonies. I would want to break down stigmas around recreation, and make sure leaders across the region were properly teaching their institutions about how to be as equitable as possible. I would also be a leader that would set the blueprint for how to promote inclusivity and enhance student’s experiences throughout the region.

In describing your contributions to NIRSA (i.e. presentations, volunteering, previous leadership roles, etc.), identify how your involvement and experiences meet the Regional Student Leader position criteria and qualify you to advocate for and serve the students of the Association?

As a member of campus recreation for over two years, and an active NIRSA member this year, I am beginning to dive into the wonderful opportunities that NIRSA offers. I have always been passionate about campus rec, and when I began my graduate assistantship, I got the chance to see that there are many people just as passionate as I. I have gotten to volunteer at both a regional and the national NIRSA Soccer Championship Series tournaments. Although these are my first experiences, and really got my feet wet, I think that the work I did there shows the kind of leader I would be for NIRSA at a regional or national level. Those experiences were all about the long hours, hands on, serving the people kind of work. And that is the work I love to do. I love to get my hands dirty and solve issues, I love to help students have a great experience, and I loved to be challenged and be able to maintain a positive attitude through it all- and I am good at it. As a leader I will always put the needs of others first. I am a hard worker and would not feel satisfied unless I knew that I was putting in the best effort I could and was able to make an impact. The proudest I have ever felt in NIRSA was volunteering and the Region 6 soccer tournament and being able to open a facility by myself and manage it for a team by myself. I was proud because I thought on the fly, and stayed calm under pressure, but mostly because I got to see the smiles on the players’ faces and I got to be thanked by name by the teams. I saw myself directly impacted students for the better, and that is a feeling I will chase through my whole career in NIRSA.

As a Regional Student Leader within NIRSA, you have the opportunity to leave a lasting impact on the field of collegiate recreation. With a focus on Student Member Recruitment & Retention, and Student Development what skills, talents, and perspectives would you bring to the Student Leadership Team?

As a student who came up through the campus recreation ladder and is still climbing, I know first hand what it is like to be a student employee, as well as a participant in campus recreation. I have worked heavily in intramural and club sports, help at Utah State with facilities and special events, and have been a participant in many different program’s areas through my undergraduate and graduate degree. One of my best skills is how I interact with people. When I graduated from UW-Eau Claire my supervisor told me that I could go far in this career, because the way I care about student staff is not something that can be taught. I have taken that feedback and ran with it. Here at Utah State I am a mentor and leader, and I connect with them by not just supervising, but also servicing them. I help with their tasks, am a resource, and work hard to validate them for their hard work. I have completely upgraded the intramural official evaluation process here at USU, and we are going into the new semester with nearly a 100%retention rate for officials, aside from those we were able to interview to become supervisors. I have created strong and trusting connections because I have proved that I belong to be where I am, and that I am here because I really care. The opportunity to have this relationship across the region and the country excited me and is a challenge I know I would excel in.