By Olivia Dowell, media relations intern
The creation of this idea came for Senior Associate Athletic Director Deana Garner a few years back in 2018-19 after some student-athletes had communicated with her that they wanted to have a program specific for female student-athletes that would also include their male allies. Now to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the group EmpowHER has finally kicked off.
Garner was the Senior Woman Administrator for Sun Devil Athletics when this idea was brought to her attention. In order to provide just the right amount of programming for student-athletes, Garner said initially the athletes would do “pop-up programming” to talk about their ideas.
“We were intentional about trying not to over-program their time,” Garner said. “At the student-athlete meals we would come up with a topic and would promote the topic through the department. Then at times, we would have a guest speaker or sometimes it’d be just [the athletes] talking together.”
Sometimes former athletes came back to speak to the female student-athletes as well as their allies to give them advice on how to take advantage of what’s offered to them as a Sun Devil. When COVID-19 first began to affect in-person meetings and athletics alike, Garner said the program was put on hold.
Then this past fall, some female student-athletes reached out to Garner saying they wanted to get together again with other athletes outside of their sports after not being together the previous school year. In addition, 2022 is the 50th anniversary of Title IX, a federal civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools or other educational programs.
Jensen Kaelin, a sophomore on the Sun Devil Beach Volleyball team, said that she has noticed a difference between her first year of college and what current freshmen are experiencing. Kaelin said less social interaction for most second-year student-athletes led to her wanting to be involved with EmpowHER.
“Seeing the difference between my class and the freshman class we have this year and the classes ahead of me is the social integration they had with other athletes,” Kaelin said. “So our class did the best they could with social integration but we didn’t have what they have now.”
Garner said Camryn Williams, the Sun Devil Athletics Sports Law and Business Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Graduate Assistant, also met with some of the student-athletes. From there, the group organized some of the ideas the student-athletes had.
The first 2022 EmpowHER event was held on February 9 and was a Zoom meeting that brought female student-athletes from various sports. The meeting began with five minutes of mindfulness, led by Rachael Holp, a redshirt junior on Sun Devil Swim and Dive. Garner said that prior to the first meeting, the group had wanted Holp as their peer and teammate to lead the mindfulness moment and that she’s been doing the exercise with her team often and that the support from her fellow student-athletes was incredibly critical.
A component of EmpowHER is also to bring in guest speakers. Garner said she brought in the student-athletes’ help on who to have as guest speakers. For the first meeting, they brought in Dr. Victoria Jackson, a sports historian and a Clinical Assistant Professor of History at ASU, as well as Nona Lee, the Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“We want to take these EmpowHER meetings not only to get to know everybody but also to learn life skills that you can use in the real world,” Kaelin said. “We were so very lucky to kick off our EmpowHER series with two very powerful and bright women. They are the real deal, they have done it all.”
Among the student-athletes and others involved with Sun Devil Athletics in attendance, Christina Wombacher, Sun Devil Athletics Senior Woman Administrator as well as other people who work with the Global Sport Institute were also there. They are a program that aligns itself with social impact, Garner said, which is also what she considers to be something Title IX aligns itself with. Further, there were also some students in the ASU Masters of Sports Law and Business Program there as further allies for their peers, Garner said.
A topic that’s been discussed in the world of sports as of late is mental health. In the first EmpowHER meeting, this was talked of and Garner, as well as Kaelin, said that they’ve appreciated it being discussed more and more.
“The younger generation, maybe people even younger now, are very open about talking about how they feel,” Garner said. “I think it's just really imperative that athletes continue to have environments that are supportive for them, so that they can freely communicate as they did at our first meeting.”
This group will continue to meet throughout the year and Garner hopes it will be something that continues in the long run. This group as well as Sun Devil Athletics will continue to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX up to its anniversary in June.