My guest for this Sandbox Story is Brittany Ammerman. My family met her while she was a student at the University of Wisconsin, where she played Division 1 Women’s Ice Hockey. She had the chance to play on the same team with her sister, together winning the NCAA National Championship in 2011.
In her words, her life is about sports, health, and women's empowerment. As a female 4th year student of the Penn State College of Medicine, her motivations and drive are similar to many of my colleagues in Optometry. That gave me the incentive to tell her story to my audience.
Brittany has leveraged the learnings from being a hockey player for 18 years into the skillset and communication abilities to drive toward a future career in orthopedic surgery. Anyone who has played organized athletics will identify with many of her stories. And at a young age, she is already serving as a mentor to others which is a quality that we should all pursue.
One of the more interesting parts of this interview is held in the story of her participation in a college outreach trip to Kenya that resulted (by complete chance) in her becoming the founder of the Nikumbuke Soccer League for women in the villages of Kenya where health and wellness services were being delivered by her traveling party. For her efforts, she was recognized the NCAA Hockey Humanitarian Award in 2015.
As part of telling Brittany's story, I strongly encourage my Optometry friends to join me in donating to the Nikumbuke Soccer League - visit www.nikumbukesoccer.org
Many thanks to Brittany for her willingness to share her stories here!
The Stories within the Story include:
1:12 The College Hockey Story
5:50 The Coach Story
7:31 The College Decision Story
13:30 The Family Story
17:20 The Med School Influence Story
28:26 The Women’s Health Story
44:38 The Peloton Story
47:19 The Mentoring Story
Runtime: 58 min
Check it out:
YouTube video podcast: https://youtu.be/vOKkV4fQ_1o
Audio Podcast Apps: search for "Sandbox Stories" on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon, Pandora and more!
Downloadable Podcast (mp3): https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/8frxbr/Sandbox_Interview_-_Ammerman_AUDIOamxmk.mp3