The Kinesiology Merit Fellowships are given to deserving students from educational, cultural, or geographic backgrounds that are underrepresented in kinesiology in the United States or at the University of Michigan. These students have demonstrated a commitment to diversity in the academic, professional, or civic realm through their work experience, volunteer engagement, or leadership of student or community organizations.

Read on to learn more about Kylie Lison, one of this year’s graduate fellows.

Q: What was it like for you to grow up?

A: I grew up in central Massachusetts in a little city called Gardner. I have a very tight-knit family, which is awesome. I’m very, very close to my grandmother; she lives maybe eight minutes from me. I have a younger sister who’s 16 months younger than me and two older sisters that are 10 and 11 years older than me.

Going into middle school, I school choiced into the next town over’s district because it had better opportunities as far as academics and especially sports. But it was very weird for me. Despite being eight minutes away from my new school, I felt disconnected.

My city is very different from the two towns that merged for the school district; there was a lot more cultural and racial diversity in my city, and going to a new district where it was all white was very alarming. I wasn’t used to that, even though I am white. It took me a while to adjust, especially when a lot of the families had money, and the kids weren’t afraid to tell everyone about it. So that was tough growing up with that.

Q: What types of DEI initiatives have you been involved in in the past?

A: I transferred from Rhode Island College, where I went to play basketball, to Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, after my first semester. I got heavily involved at Saint A’s. I was a mentor for our Transitions Program, which was a pre-orientation program for incoming first years where they could get to know about some resources, get to know some of the faculty, and establish a nice community. It was typically geared toward individuals from diverse backgrounds or low-income kids, but they accepted anyone. I was fortunate enough that my two mentees in back-to-back years became two of my best friends.

The program was housed in the intercultural center, and being a part of the center helped me get involved in other programs and offices. We did a lot of work hosting events to promote social justice issues. If it was Black History Month, we would hold events throughout that entire month; on MLK Day, we had a big dinner where students got to speak and read poems, and they presented awards to a student who’s very active in social justice advocacy as well as a staff/faculty member.

And I got involved in campus ministry and got to go on a couple service trips. The program was called BREAK, and it stood for Benedictine Reflection, Education, Advocacy and Kinship (Benedictine ‘cause we were a college run by Benedictine monks). The Benedictine root of that was grounded in hospitality and treating everyone with dignity and respect. We weren’t going in to be heroes or solve all the problems that the community was facing but really just to educate ourselves.

Q: What brought you to U-M?

A: I always waver back and forth between being an athletic director at the collegiate level or working in the front office of a professional baseball team. But either way, I knew I wanted to get my master’s in sport management, at an institution that’s known for its academics as well as its athletics.

The dean of St. A’s recommended some conferences to look into, including definitely the Big Ten. When I applied to Michigan, a lot of people were telling me I wasn’t going to get in, that I didn’t have good enough grades. Honestly, I didn’t believe it myself. I knew it was a reach school, but I applied anyway.

For the longest time, I had my heart set on going to Georgetown, and then one day, I got an email saying that I got into Michigan. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that was completely unexpected.’ Moving so far from home was very intimidating to me, but once I came out to the Accepted Students Day, I knew there was no way I could pass up this opportunity. I love this place.

Q: How did you hear about the Kinesiology Merit Fellows (KMF) program?

A: I want to say I got an email about it in the spring or early summer. I knew that when I was going into graduate school, I didn’t want to get as involved as in undergrad, but I still wanted to get involved in ways that really, truly mattered to me and in ways that I could really affect change. So being a part of Bridge [a Kinesiology program that connects and engages students from populations that are underserved in graduate education]​​ and being a part of KMF really gave me the opportunity to get to know like-minded people who share similar values and goals of how they want to enact change.

Q: What have KMF and Bridge enabled you to do?

A: In Bridge, I felt welcomed immediately. We had so much fun together as a group. That helped me coming so far from home to feel like I had a community right off the bat. Four of the sport management kids that were in Bridge are in all of my classes, and the first couple of weeks of classes where nobody really knows each other, I had them, which made me feel less nervous. We all have a group chat still, and we talk to each other all the time.

This semester, I was thinking about how I could get involved, and I reached out to Dr. E [the Kines manager of DEI], who suggested a few things. Right now, I’m working with another sport management graduate student to bring back the Kinesiology Diversity and Inclusion Network (KDIN) [a previous student organization]. It’s so needed to have that organization as a support system for so many people.

We’ve been reaching out to students, and we have a pretty good roster so far. We have a lot of ideas for events to bring everyone together, maybe some movie nights where we watch something that hits home for a current social justice issue. Something that’s still enjoyable but that people can also reflect on and learn from. After we watch, we’ll have conversations about what we saw in the movie and what the issues are and maybe some steps on how we as a community can work toward addressing that.

I’m grateful to the University of Michigan for programs like KMF or Bridge that allow us to find a sense of community and belonging and support us in our endeavors, motivating us to enact change. That’s a big reason why I reached out to Dr. E. I have DEI experience, and it’s something I’m really passionate about. I want to make a difference, even if it’s on a small level.