Amber Montero | Sr., Softball | Scholarship
Softball standout Amber Montero earns her second Fleur-de-lis Award for scholarship this athletic year after being selected to present at the annual Association of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) Conference in Portland, Oregon last week. Montero has worked as a research assistant in the Henrietta Schmoll School of Health at St. Catherine for the past two years and was given the opportunity, along with classmate, Paige Nelson and professor, Dr. Rebecca Busanich, through the Summer Scholars Program and GHR Innovative Scholarship Grant. The research presentation was titled: "The Ripple Effect: How a cross country built a culture of love through running journals". Her team examined historical texts (team running journals from 20-25 years ago) to explore how running narratives were constructed for the team at that time and how these narratives impacted the student-athletes experiences and outcomes. Following up with these athletes then in present day (20-25 years later), they looked at how these narratives may have shifted or remained the same over time, and how this has impacted those participants' exercising experiences over time. Thus, the team was able to get a longitudinal glimpse into the sociocultural impacts of exercise adherence with the results also providing implications for coaching and mental performance consultants. After presenting the research to top professionals and academics from the sport and exercise psychology field, the team was encouraged by journal editors to publish the findings into a peer-reviewed manuscript, which they plan to release in the spring.
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