PUSHING BOUNDARIES

Emma O’Brien’s curiosity led to opportunities and a career path

Published Nov 30, 2020 by

Kristen Martin

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Emma O’Brien’s willingness to say yes to opportunities led her to new experiences, research and a career path in sports. (Photo by Cliff Hollis)

When opportunity knocked, Emma O’Brien was ready to answer.

“When I first came into school, I was so pigeon-holed into what I thought I wanted to do. When I thought I wanted to dance, that’s really all I had thought about my entire life, so I had never really explored,” the Wake Forest native said.

She chose East Carolina University for the access to opportunities and community that the Honors College and EC Scholars program provided.

“I wanted to be somewhere where I found myself surrounded by people that believed in me and would push me to be my best self,” she said. “That has proven true. Every day I feel like I’m able to give so much back to this community, but there’s also people pushing me to be my best self and helping me network and meet tons of people in order to excel in the future.”

Starting her freshman year, the business management major showed the willingness to get out of her comfort zone by studying abroad in Australia and New Zealand with the sports studies program. That trip led to the addition of a sports studies minor.

“At first, I was lost in the business world, because business is so broad, and I wasn’t sure where I wanted to focus my interest. Once I saw the opportunities in sports to not only be a participant but to work on the administration and business of sports, I was interested in pursuing that,” she said.

O’Brien spent a semester working at the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
(Contributed photo)

O’Brien continued to say yes to opportunities that came her way, including the Mount Vernon Leadership Fellows program.

“I was the first student from ECU to ever be accepted to this fellowship, so I thought I wasn’t going to get it,” she said.

Her time in Washington, D.C. led to her undergraduate research project dealing with barriers to youth sports participation.

“I felt research only revolved around science and that’s the only research I had ever been introduced to in high school, so I wrote it off when coming to college. Through different classes I took and the Honors College and EC Scholars program, I got to see what community-based research was like,” she said. “I built that research study with Dr. Stacy Warner from scratch and got to see it evolve over three years, which was really awesome to see the impact on my community and pursue something I was curious about.”

O’Brien called her time at the United State Olympic and Paralympic Committee as a full-time employee one of her most beneficial experiences.

“I got to work in all eight business units at USA Triathlon, which was really awesome to explore where my interest and skills lie, whether that was in marketing, fundraising, business development, youth sport and seeing how those all intertwined in this organization,” she said.

While at ECU, O’Brien was a student worker at the Honors College, part of the Honors College Student Council and the Student Pirate Club executive board. Her favorite experience, however, was her semester abroad in the ECU Tuscany program.

One of O’Brien’s favorite experiences at ECU was her time studying abroad through the Italy Intensives program in spring 2018 and a faculty-led trip to Australia and New Zealand in summer 2017. (Contributed photo)

“It inspired me to want to move abroad in the future or at least go to grad school abroad. We all have different cultures and different ideals, but the common thread line of humanity is so similar and being able to integrate into the culture in Certaldo was an amazing experience,” she said.

O’Brien is interested in graduate schools abroad but is putting that off for a couple of years, in hopes that she will be able to travel safely and attend school in person. She also plans to take this time to decide what graduate degree to pursue.

“I am between a few ideas so that’s why I’m really interested in working first,” she said. “I see myself going more into policy and research, so I’m thinking about a master’s in public policy or public administration, as well as possibly getting my MBA.”