Sara Segoviano supports Tarleton students, promotes growth within Campus Recreation

BY HAELEY CARPENTER

Editor-in-Chief

Segoviano was a little nervous because she was not the cookie-cutter demographic that usually attended the college, but she trusted her advisor. Dudgeon helped Segoviano apply to The Citadel, a military college in South Carolina, and she was accepted.

Segoviano attained her master’s degree in health, exercise and sports Sciences and received her certification in corrective exercise.

After graduating, Segoviano returned to the College of Charleston Campus Recreation as a fitness instructor and front desk worker and climbed the ranks to Assistant Director of Fitness and Adjunct Faculty Classes.

“Because of Campus Rec, this is where I am today,” Segoviano said.

The motivation behind choosing disciplines like exercise science and allied health is simple: There needs to be more females in the field.

So much surrounding the fitness industry is male-centered.

“The ones doing it were hardcore lifters; there weren’t many women who knew the other side, or it was often seen as, ‘All you do is teach a bunch of fancy, exotic fitness classes and wear leotards,’ and I kinda wanted to dispel that imagery that women don’t know much,” Segoviano said.

After 25 years in South Carolina, however, she decided to move home. She credits the return to two things: family and Texas.

Being from San Angelo and knowing her son was stationed outside of Charleston, she felt disconnected from her family. Instead of being days away from her family, she is now just a couple of hours.

“[My son] is active duty military, and that’s one thing that I’m just so proud of him. He’s getting his bachelor’s degree already while he’s serving our country. Being my one and only, he’s my little precious gift,” Segoviano said. “It’s a sacrifice, but I know he’s doing right by our country, and that sounds very cliche, but I feel very proud of that. It sucks being far away from him every day; that’s six years I’ll never get back. He’s gonna be moving to Oklahoma soon, be stationed there soon, thank God. I’ll have him a little closer.”

At the end of the day, living in Texas beats Charleston by a long shot.

“I felt like I did my military time at the east coast, and it was time to come home to Texas. And it’s like, how can you not love Texas?” Segoviano said.

Moving home was a feeling and coming to Tarleton was the same.

Segoviano received offers from many other places, but Tarleton was it for her.

“I chose here because I felt the vibe was everything,” Segoviano said. “I felt like this is where I needed to be, I felt an overwhelming calling like this is where I needed to be. There were very attractive other places, attractive being closer to the ocean, close to cool rivers and lakes, very touristy places. But here I felt like it called me, and I felt so strongly about it. The day I interviewed here, I made my mind up that I was gonna be here.”

With 16th President Dr. James Hurley, Tarleton is growing full steam ahead, and Segoviano was all about that.

“Tarleton was the best choice because I just felt like it was on the move, and I felt like I could bring that type of vibe here and keep it up. The president, you have to keep up with him, and I love that vibe. I felt like that energy – I had it, and I was ready to put it all in for here,” Segoviano said.

In the time that Segoviano has been at Tarleton, just under a year, the recreation center went from five classes in the fall and seven classes in the spring to 58 classes in the fall and 60 in the spring. Last year they had no classes on the weekend snd now they offer classes seven days a week.

“On a good day, we have seven classes in one classroom and six classes in another classroom,” Segoviano said. “We also have more males teaching fitness classes this semester than ever.”

It had been around a decade since Tarleton Recreation went to TexFit, a conference for college recreation centers to take fitness classes and attend lectures. Segoviano is on the board for TexFit, so she took a group of 11 students to the conference and plans for one of them to give a lecture next spring.

Segoviano shares a connection with the student workers in more than just a boss and employee role. Every week, student workers meet with Segoviano to catch up and talk about how they are doing.

It is the perfect time for students to express concerns in a safe, comfortable environment, and it builds trust between the student and Segoviano. Meetings are brief, just enough to catch the other up on their weeks and how they’ve been doing.

“At the beginning, the students were like, ‘Man, I don’t wanna meet up with her once a week,’ and now I have students say, ‘Yeah, I’m looking forward to the ten minutes,’” Segoviano said. “It’s kind of like a word-vomit session, and I feel like the more [student workers] I have do that, the better adults they become in communicating. Knowing that it’s okay to say how you feel, knowing it’s okay to feel the way you feel, even if it’s not fitness related.”

Group fitness instructors and personal trainers alike find value in the meetings. Kohana Dilport is a personal trainer and teaches a group fit class.

“I like how we do weekly check-ins. It just helps us see what’s going on, check in with other people, and I definitely think with Sara being our manager and the rec staff, having a lot of meetings and having time where we can hang out as a group has really brought us together, and I really like it.”

Mental health is just as important, if not more important than physical fitness according to Segoviano.

“You have to do yourself right up here in the head first, you have to be right mentally before anything else, before you give you give to anybody else, before you make yourself lift up any weights. Being in the right headspace, I think, is more than 99 % of the battle, everything else you can probably handle,” Segoviano said.

If students who work with Segoviano are one thing, it’s supported.

Dilport recently moved to Tarleton from Japan alone and has found her home away from home at the recreation center, and Segoviano has played a large role in that. The fitness and wellness team grows together and forms bonds during their monthly meetings and trips.

And grow they do.

Each person has different goals and dreams, but Segoviano goes out of her way to help each student reach their goals and make the team feel like a true team.

“I don’t want it to feel like it felt before where it was very competitive. I’m a big, big supporter of teams. I want to support dreams, I want to support creativity,” Segoviano said. “I love supporting students and their ideas, and I love seeing their eyes light up and realizing ‘Wow, someone has my back here.’ I love showing support, and I think creativity needs to be supported more in students because I think the more support we show, the more they grow and the more they find out about themselves. I think that’s what your experience should be here in college, it’s finding out yourself.”

Segoviano fits perfectly into what students want in a boss, teacher and mentor. And so does the rest of the staff in the recreation center.

The other staff members at the recreation center have welcomed Segoviano with open arms.

“We are a work family,” Segoviano said. “We’re there through good times and bad. They make me do check-ins, and I love it. They are like my work family. We watch out for each other not just Monday through Friday, 9-5 – it extends on the weekends and after hours. It’s all the time and that’s family. That’s another reason why I wanted to come here. They watch out for me, if I need anything, they’re there in a heartbeat. That’s how we work.”

Segoviano has only been part of the Tarleton recreation center for 11 months, but her presence and hard work has made an impact on every part of fitness and wellness – not only as the department in the recreation center, but all over campus. From events she helps run to the services she advertises, she has been an asset to the growth of the programs and support of the students.

“I’ve had many managers in the past but Sara, she’s definitely one of the best managers I’ve ever had. She has done a lot, she has gotten us, I think, a $9,000 grant so that we can get certifications through the school. For my personal training certification, I paid $400 for it, and that was on sale from $800. Just being able to get certifications for free under Sara is really amazing,” Dilport said.

Segoviano works hard for the students, faculty and community of Stephenville. And it doesn’t go unnoticed. She started as the Assistant Director and in just six months was promoted to Associate Director and Adjunct Professor.

“I love what I do,” Segoviano said. “It’s hard work. By no means is there an easy, non-eventful day. There’s always, believe it or not, always something going on in fitness. Whether it is the wellness aspect, we always have something  going on. Or it’s the academic side or the students side because of all the student employees. Not everyone is going to have a normal uneventful day. There’s always something going on, but I love having my experience, sharing my experience, guiding young students and helping them believe in themselves. That? I love that.”