AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn women's track and field athlete Keira McCarrell was named the female recipient of the Fall 2021 PNC Achievers Award in January. The senior was selected for her well-rounded achievement through leadership, academic success, community engagement and in competition.
Born in British Columbia, McCarrell grew up in Salem, Oregon where she competed in track and field in high school. She also competed for the Canadian International Team from 2017-18. After being on the track team at Oregon for two years, McCarrell was looking for something new and entered the transfer portal.
"As soon as I got in the portal, Coach Scott Richardson called me and I went for a visit," McCarrell said. "No one was here because it was during the summer, but I fell in love with it without even meeting anybody. I canceled all my other visits. I came here, and they said all the things I was looking for."
McCarrell transferred to Auburn in 2019 and has been on the team for three years. Since arriving at Auburn, she has made an impact on and off the track.
Here is McCarrell, in her own words, on what it means to be a PNC Achiever.
Q: What does it mean to be a PNC achiever?
McCarrell: For a while here being here at Auburn, during the pandemic and some of the things that my committee was doing and my involvement in the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), I felt like I was moving under the radar. I have been doing a lot of things for student-athletes and it felt good to know that other people in the community were like, "Hey, we see what you're doing, and we want to recognize you on a national scale." It was really exciting, and it felt good to know that people were aware of the things I was doing at Auburn and to be a part of the networking that the PNC Bank has given me – it's a blessing for sure. I definitely love the connections I've made and the people I've met.
Q: What are some of the things you do outside of track?
McCarrell: I am the Subcommittee Chair of the Equity and Inclusion Committee for SAAC. We work alongside the Equity and Inclusion Committee that's inside of the athletic administration and work with some of the ideas they push forward, such as the social unrest that happened in 2020. We also helped create the unity patch, and we host a lot of events that coincide with things that the student body is doing, especially the minority student body. I feel that oftentimes in athletics we get in our own world, and it's important to interact with the rest of campus. With SAAC, we work as liaisons to the athletic administration, work on things they want to see from us and things we want to see from them, and we make those kinds of things happen. We do things that make our athletic experience better, and we do things that make our academic experience better.
Q: What is the definition of a student-athlete?
McCarrell: Hard work. The work that goes under the radar, I think people aren't aware of that. We have less hours in our day to study. It's going home when you're exhausted after practice and then finding a way to make it happen and pull through with the grades and go to study hall hours and tutoring. But also, we as student-athletes get to embody the university in such a different way. When we walk around the community, the state of Alabama, or even in the U.S. and people see us in our gear, they want to come have a conversation. They want to come learn about our experiences. Being an athlete at a big university is a way to start conversations with the community. It allows for a bigger and broader community, and it broadens everything the university has to offer for us.
Q: For you, where does that passion and hard work come from?
McCarrell: In my hometown in Oregon, I was one of maybe 15 students of color and two of them were my sisters. I started a club in my high school, and it was the first club for African-Americans. I started getting really involved in the Salem chapter of the NAACP. They started recognizing me for things, and I got a scholarship coming out of high school for things I was doing in the community. I just got really fired up about it. When I got to Oregon I was not as involved as I wanted to be, but then I came to Auburn and within my first two months here, Coach Richardson came up to me and asked me to be the SAAC rep. I think I come from a unique place of being able to discuss the white side of me versus the black side of me in the communities in which they come together. Moving to Alabama was a culture shock, but coming here and still being fired up and having a program that's like, "We hear you and we want you to do it and we're going to give you the platform to do it" – that was cool.
Q: What is your major and what do you want to do with it?
McCarrell: My major is speech, language and hearing sciences, and I applied to Auburn's grad school for speech-language pathology. I want to go to speech school and get my certification in speech-language pathology and be a speech-language pathologist, hopefully in the medical setting. But I also have a really big passion for diversity and inclusion efforts. In the Office of Inclusion and Diversity here on campus, I received a graduate assistantship through the Tiger Excellence Program. So, I'm trying to stay here, do grad school, do athletics, and still do something I'm super passionate about.
Q: What does the Auburn Family mean to you?
McCarrell: The Auburn Family means for me that I am never homesick. I am so far away from home, but it does not feel like it because I have this whole community around me all the time. Whenever I have a passion for something, they give me the platform for it. I think a lot of student-athletes need to grab hold of that at Auburn because the opportunities are there. You just have to get on that train and ride it. What the Auburn Family means for me is that if you want an opportunity, they are there to provide it for you and the community is there to support you. I love that about Auburn and being in a college town versus Eugene. People love Oregon, but it's something else being on the other side of the country and having someone say, "War Eagle" and then start a conversation with you. That's what the Auburn Family is. It stretches so far and wide, and it means that I am never homesick.