Marina Kelly Coaches Athletes and Students for Academic Success
“I always knew I wanted to teach and be a mentor, whether in the classroom or on the playfield field,” writes Marina Kelly MEd ’21, the assistant coach for women’s soccer at Regis. Inspired by her mother, a preschool teacher, the Whitman, MA, native received her BS in Secondary Education from Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where she was a member of the soccer and basketball teams. Her sister, Rachel Kelly BS ’20, a soccer star at Regis who attended the diagnostic sonography program and is now a diagnostic medical sonographer at Boston Medical Center, suggested Marina apply for a graduate internship to gain experience in higher education and earn her graduate degree.
“I had the privilege of working with a lot of great professors and administrators throughout my time in the student success program at Regis. Both Dr. [Priscilla] Boerger and Dr. [Rebecca] Putnam provided me with an abundance of support and guidance,” Marina recalls. “Dr. B. was big on learning about each individual in the program and relating the content to their specific work since everyone came from different work environments.”
Marina has several courses with Dr. Boerger who was impressed with her “conscientiousness, grace and gratitude… if she didn’t know, she’d ask; if she knew, she’d spring to the assignment—always surpassing expectations.”
Describing her dream job as a student-athlete academic advisor for a collegiate athletic department, Marina feels well-prepared. “The student success program was a good fit for me because I was able to learn new skills and strategies to use with individuals to get them to reach their full potential.”
