Whitley Henry ’15

 

Name: Whitley Henry 

 

Year: Senior

 

Hometown: Bay City, Michigan 

 

Major: Kinesiology with a psychosocial focus and a health promotion specialization

 

What made you choose kinesiology? It kind of evolved, actually. At first, I was human bio and then I was physio. But then I went to kinesiology because I figured out what I want to do with my life.

 

What do you want to do with your life? I want to work with soldiers and be a psychiatrist in the military. At first, I was kinesiology with exercise physio as my cognate, and then I took sports physio and it was my favorite class. It opened my eyes to all that I could do with kinesiology. I also always wanted to be in the military so I kind of just linked the two together. 

 

What experience with kinesiology/psychology do you have so far? In kinesiology, I have over 80 hours in the training room at Michigan State, and I worked with the men’s football team, the men’s soccer team and the men’s wrestling team. In one of my classes, I got trained for CPR and first aid which was another fun class for me. For psych, I had an internship that was an 18-week intervention with youth. Basically, I was an advocate for them, and I just promoted positive things into their lives. I introduced them to ways to use the community to stay out of trouble, or if they had an interest in something, I would go out into the community and find something that they could do. Before that, I had training to learn how to talk with the kids, to understand the court systems and talk to parents.  

 

What are you involved in on campus? Rugby – this is my fourth year. I have been playing since I was a freshman. Last year I became the ‘backs captain’. Rugby is a collective game, but the forwards and backs separate to practice. Backs are usually faster runners and do the running of the ball. I help train new girls on the team and communicate with the forwards captain. 

 

What about rugby do you love the most? I like the community. I’ve met so many people who play rugby all over the world. I’ve met people from Australia, Europe – there’s just so many people that play. It’s such a huge community and everyone is just very nice and helpful. I’ve made a lot of friends being on the rugby team.

 

Who is your biggest role model? My aunt, because when she was alive, you could just talk to her about anything or go to her about anything. She was very motivating and comforting. She was the first person I told about me being gay, and she was just really supportive.

 

What are you most passionate about? My family. I’ve always been really big on family just because it seemed like I didn’t have a lot of family when I was younger. Everyone on my mom’s side of the family is white, and I felt like I was the only black one. And even though I fit in on my dad’s side of the family because of skin, I didn’t feel like I fit in with the way I acted. But now, I feel differently and they are my backbone. With my younger siblings, I just want to be a person that they can look to for help, and I want them to feel like they can follow in my footsteps.

 

What are your plans after graduation? I plan to enlist active in the navy and be active for a year or two until I decide to get my Master’s in either counseling psych or social work; I haven’t decided yet. 

 

Any advice for future Spartans? Stay persistent through stress because you can’t dodge it. You’re going to get stressed out. Just stay motivated.