Amanda Johnson; A Student, A Runner, A Leader

Interview by Brandon Wilson

Written by Jay Carroll

Video by Isaiah Hunter

Edited by Jada Sunderman

Amanda Johnson, is a student athlete on the Women’s Cross Country and Track team and also happens to be vice president for the organization, Ranger Student Athletic Advisory Committee at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Amanda is currently a graduate student studying Sports Management.

The RSAAC is a student athlete representative organization, where a couple of student athletes represent their team when there are needs or issues to be discussed. Amanda’s role in the organization includes being the scribe, setting up meetings, and communicating to her team when they need different things.

She joined the RSAAC about three years ago starting out as an event coordinator and worked her way up to her current role of VP. When asked if she had any regrets joining the organization she stated “I do not regret joining RSAAC, it is a lot of fun, you get to meet a lot of different people, and converse with different teams as well.”

The RSAAC has community ties with different organizations in the Kenosha area. This helps Amanda step up to the plate to help the community. Recently, she participated in a clothing drive for people in need, where she, along with the organization successfully collected a lot of clothes and plan to give them to the YMCA.

Amanda has also done other work in the community by going to the Boys and Girls Club and “The Miracle League” at YMCA and hanging with the youth, helping them become excited about their future’s.

Amanda’s advice to anyone looking to join the organization is just to jump in, talk to someone about it and get more information because that would be the best way; one can even bring a friend. She says RSAAC has definitely impacted her character and that she is more confident in her leadership and public speaking skills.

“It has helped me become a leader, if you were to ask me three years ago to stand up and speak to someone, I probably would have told you no. So, it definitely has helped me to be able to talk and relate to other student athletes who are not just runners”, stated Johnson.

In today’s Covid-19 era, the RSAAC had to move all of its business ventures virtual, which has affected the crowd’s participation. As it navigates through these unforeseen circumstances, the RSAAC is aiming to be more useful within its organization, making sure its members feel welcomed and open to share opinions.

Currently, Amanda has been working with the organization to meet a goal of gaining knowledge on inclusion and diversity by holding virtual meetings with guest speakers. Amanda describes the topic itself as being a very hard discussion to have, but the virtual sessions have been a little easier to handle than when they deal with their other community engagements.

In addition to working on the goal, within the organization, an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion program was created, which aims to make sure that the athletic department has just that (equity, diversity, and inclusion). By doing this, it hopes to help meet individual needs and no one is left feeling alienated.

Amanda also gave a little insight on how Covid-19 has been affecting the sports life overall.

She says “Athletes currently have to get tested every week, a lot of the seasons were delayed, and it just put some stress on the athletic trainers and the students themselves with balancing their education and sport.”

Johnson, is hopeful that the world will see its normal way of living but knows the process will definitely take time. Some students thrive with the online virtual learning and others struggle, so it is just a work in progress to find balance in this new norm.