For many college students, the role of a full-time student is challenging. The everyday pressures of assignment deadlines and making it to your next class is just one more thing on a student’s to-do list to keep track of.
The role of a full-time college student is just one of the many roles, Shamika Langevine, takes on in her daily routine.
Langevine is a full-time graduate student, striker for the women’s soccer team and the resident director of main complex here at Seton Hill University.
“I’m from Toronto. I really enjoy the city life, it’s busy, there’s always something to do, and it’s [Pittsburgh] comparable, but it is a smaller type of city setting. It still feels homey,” said Langevine.
Langevine stated she started playing soccer at a “younger age” of around five years old. It was from that moment forward that the sport would carry on having influence in her academic and professional life.
“I think it was my sophomore or junior year of high school when I realized I wanted to play soccer in college, but before then it wasn’t really a big thought of mine.” Langevine said.
The next move for her was to come to the states for school and for soccer. Langevine would go onto attend Alderson Broaddus University in West Virginia for four years for her undergraduate degree in Business Administration and marketing and a minor in accounting.
“I made Academic All-Conference, but those are based off of GPA, I made that all three years of my undergrad.” Langevine said.
The next move for Langevine would be to attend graduate school where she is in her first year at SHU in the 2019 fall semester.
“At Alderson, we played Seton Hill’s women’s soccer, that’s how I became familiar with Seton Hill.” Langevine said. “It’s been good so far, I feel like we are a better team and we gel better in that sense, and we execute things better. In terms of team chemistry, we had good team chemistry at Alderson, and the chemistry here is good. I feel like that was one thing that was really important to me when I was being recruited which I asked the coach, ‘Was the team chemistry good? And do the girls get along?’.”
“I am always busy, but it’s good, I like [Seton Hill], it’s been really welcoming,” said Langevine.
Langevine with her three roles at SHU has gained experience in each to form a perspective which has helped her with “leadership.”
“I feel like I have different perspectives. From a student perspective, I try not to focus on my other job responsibilities and try to just be a student. As a professional, it’s kind of makes me realize the things from an administrative point of view rather than just going through the motions and letting things happen,” said Langevine. “Whereas in an administrative position you have to be in charge. As a student, you can let things happen. And then as a student athlete you’re so concerned with your sport that sometimes you can let that overpower your day with a bad game.”
Langevine has to find a balance between all three of her positions because of her many responsibilities.
“At my old school, I was a captain on the soccer team. I’m so used to being a captain and here I don’t have the captain responsibilities,” said Langevine. “But you can still encourage your teammates and stuff like that, so I feel those characteristics have carried through.”
When Langevine is not on the soccer field with her teammates, she can be found performing her duties as resident director of main complex. Langevine stated she started the position “this past July.”
“I have eight RA’s including an HRA, which is a head RA. They oversee the main complex of residents’ halls. I oversee them as a supervisor and provide support for them and help them with whatever they need,” said Langevine, “Then I’m in charge of break housing. When it comes to breaks and stuff, I make sure whoever says is on campus during those times. I make sure they have their meal plans, so we know who is on campus.”
One of the biggest ways Langevine manages to balance the time between resident director, the soccer team and classes is the benefits of communication that come along with each of these roles at SHU.
“It [Resident’s life] has involved me in a lot of things. I feel like I’m out more talking to people,” said Langevine, “Most times I dress business professional in the day time and other times I’m in shorts and a t-shirt. People from the football team always see me dressed up and then running on the soccer field, and it makes more people talk to me to get a conversation started about what I do exactly.”
Published by Caitlin Srager