May 9, 2018 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu
Kenya Moore’s high school in Sanford, Florida didn’t have an athletic trainer, but she was always intrigued with the recovery process after seeing friends experience season-ending injuries. She began shadowing athletic trainers in the surrounding areas to learn more about the profession and quickly realized that’s what she wanted to do as a career.
After gaining academic and clinical experience with sports teams through her undergraduate program in athletic training at the University of Florida, Moore decided she wanted to enroll in a post-professional athletic training program to continue to improve clinically. “USC’s program was recommended to me and after research and the interview process, I believed it was the best choice because of all of the vast experiences it would offer, the way it would challenge me, the emphasis on both educational and clinical experiences, and the community of people involved with the program,” she says.
Two years later, Moore is graduating with a master of science in advanced athletic training, a program housed in the exercise science department since 2016. She recently successfully defended her research project, Examination of Energy Availability and Injury Prevalence Among Collegiate Dancers. Moore’s clinical experiences at USC included working with college and high school sports teams (e.g., football, volleyball, wrestling, basketball, cross country/track, cheer, softball, baseball, soccer) and groups in the performing arts.
Volunteering with Columbia City Ballet sparked Moore’s interest in the performing arts, and this past year she had the opportunity to serve as the head athletic trainer for the USC Marching Band & Dance Company. “I wanted to understand more about demands within the performing arts setting and ways in which we can approach healthcare for this population,” she says.
In addition to focusing her master’s research project on the topic, she also co-authored an abstract with 2016 athletic training alumna Elena Burrus on “Examination of Female Athlete Triad Components in a College Dance Company.” Their research will be published in the Journal of Medicine & Science in Sport & Exercise this summer.
“Throughout my time here I’ve had many people who I’ve been influenced by and sought for advice,” she says. “However, my doctoral mentor, Erin Moore, and research chair/program director, Dr. Toni Torres-McGehee, have been influential in various areas—specifically, with research and helping guide me through the process.”
After graduation, Moore plans to gain additional clinical experience while engaging her community to promote athletic training. Long-term she is open to obtaining more credentials and furthering her education in the field.
“Athletic training is a very rewarding profession, and this degree is challenging but worth it,” she says. “Although we give so much of ourselves to others, often times we gain so much by the experiences we have and the lives we change.”