The Whittier College student-athlete went her whole senior year without striking out. She was the only player in the region to do so this past year, and only one of six across the country. (In fact, during her whole time at bat in previous seasons, she only struck out three times.)
Her athletic accolades don't stop there. She won the Whittier College Team Athlete of the Year award, Team Offensive Player of the Year in 2022 and 2023, and 1st Team All-SCIAC three years in a row, an award that recognizes the most elite players in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC). She also won 2nd Team All Region during her senior year, and the Presidential Female Scholar Athlete of the Year as a junior.
Emily is more than a star at bat. Whittier College's well-rounded approach to education includes supporting its student-athletes as much in the classroom as on the field, and Emily was no exception. She made the dean's list twice and won the Easton/NFCA 2022 All-American Scholar-Athlete award.
She graduated this past spring—with honors—and walked across the stage having earned her bachelor's in Sports Psychology, a major she designed herself. Whittier offers students the opportunity to design their own majors through the Whittier Scholars Program, and through that, Emily worked closely with her professors to blend her interests in sports and psychology into a single, unique major.
Thanks to the self-designed coursework, she feels grateful to have explored a deeply personal subject with real application to her life. Following an injury with a six-month recovery in high school, she would get nervous about diving head first during a game, working out with overhead equipment, or other potentially dangerous activities.
"With a sport like softball, I’ve been told my entire life that the game is 90 percent mental," she said. "Wouldn’t it be important to study how to be the best mentally at it?"
"I absolutely felt supported as both an athlete and a student while at Whittier," Emily said, praising the wide array of resources that allowed student-athletes like herself to get the help they needed to focus on their studies. As just one example, the College's tutoring center has a program specifically designed to help student-athletes thrive in their academics.
Emily's head coach, Trisha Senyo, always encouraged her team to be students first, and navigated practice schedules around class times. On the other side, her professors also understood the toll a season takes on an athlete, and knowing that they cared was a great encouragement to her. They would even be vocal with their support, showing up to games to cheer the student-athletes.
"During all four years at Whittier, I always felt seen, loved, and supported by my family, friends, teammates, professors, coaches and everyone in the athletic department," she said.
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