Sara Koonce ’24: From science labs to the softball field, Business Analytics and Marketing double major finds her calling and passion at MC
Dec. 6, 2023
At an NCAA Division III school like Maryville College, the line of demarcation between classroom and athletic field is a thin one indeed. Few students embody that more than Sara Koonce ’24, a senior majoring in Marketing and Business Analytics who’s as invaluable to the Scots Science Scholars as she is the MC Softball team.
For the former — a four-year program providing financial aid, academic enrichment and support for students interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields — she’s the social media guru who spotlights the accomplishments of one of the most unique cohorts at the College. As part of the latter, she’s a catcher and clutch player who’s as comfortable behind home plate as she is breaking down data and statistics.
And as she nears the halfway point of her senior year, she’s earned respect and praise from administrators in both athletics and academics.
“It’s hard to put into words what Sara means and has meant to the MC Softball program, because words will not do her justice,” says Jill Moore, head coach of the team. “Sara is one of the most selfless teammates and leaders I have had the privilege to coach over my 15 years. It’s not always the case in athletics that your most decorated player on the field is also your biggest servant off the field, but that’s exactly who Sara is. Her dedication is not just to the softball field, but more so to the classroom. Sara is going to be a huge asset wherever she chooses to take her career, and the employer who lands her is going to hit the jackpot, just like we did at Maryville College.”
“As the Scots Science Scholars social media intern, Sara has consistently shown the ability to produce quality content at a rapid pace using limited guidance and feedback,” adds Brett Longwith, manager of the STEM Success Center at Maryville College. “Having the ability to self-start and manage this position alongside her schedule as a dual major student-athlete will help ensure she finds plenty of success post-graduation from Maryville College.”
Softball paves the way
Koonce’s road to MC began in Fayetteville, Tennessee, a small town roughly 90 miles south of Nashville, near the Alabama border. Her parents put a softball glove in her hand when she was 5 or 6, she said, and the sport became both a social outlet and a family activity.
“All my friends played, so we grew up playing together, and going to the ballpark was something fun for me and my mom to do,” she says. “I played third a lot, and then my dad got me into catching. When I was 12, my team needed a catcher, so he worked with me, got me all of these lessons, and we were out in the yard all the time. That’s how we bonded.”
In high school, she was a two-time all-district player in Lincoln County and played six years of club softball for the Huntsville Green Flash, a travel team based in the Alabama city 30 miles from Fayetteville. When she wasn’t on the field, however, she was excelling in the classroom and was a member of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), the National Honor Society and the Beta Club.
“I really liked school, and I always like surrounding myself with really smart people,” she said. “There was a group of us who always took (Advanced Placement) classes, and we always had high standards for ourselves. That was a habit that became a lifestyle after a while.”
Her high school FBLA advisor recruited her for her first social media campaign, giving her an initial taste of the social media management skills that would come in handy once she got to Maryville College, where she enrolled in the fall of 2021 after two years at Snead State Community College in Boaz, Alabama. That academic year was something of a Cinderella story for Koonce, she added, as she fell in love with the campus and her new team, going 5-for-6 with a home run and four RBIs in the opening doubleheader of the spring 2022 season. Finding her academic lane, though, took a bit longer.
“I went to the Registrar’s office so many times, and they suggested I try Business Analytics,” she says. “At first, I told them that math isn’t my thing, but I think I was trying to fool myself into it not being my thing, because the more I got into the classes and started seeing how matrices work and the endless amount of things you can do with analytics, I fell in love with it.”
It paired well with Marketing as a second major, and it didn’t take long for her to impress MC Associate Professor of Marketing Dr. Wei Fu, who isn’t the first faculty member to remark on Koonce’s “unfailingly positive and cheerful attitude, even in the face of difficulty.”
Sara has been a joy to have in class,” says Dr. Jeff Bay, professor of statistics and chair of the Division of Mathematics and Computer Science at MC. “She arrives prepared, engages during class, and will ask thoughtful questions outside of class. Her homework write-ups in Probability and Statistics I are neat and complete, carefully laying out each step on the way to a correct answer. Her interpretations on exam questions in that course and in Regression Analysis reveal an in-depth understanding of the concepts. All this, and she maintains a positive attitude, is quick with a smile, and is unfailingly polite.”
“She is always the top of the class in each course,” Fu adds. “At Maryville College, Sara decided to double major in Business Analytics and Marketing, and she is choosing to use Business Analytics techniques in her senior research project, ‘Business Analysis of Camp Rain.’”
A Scot for all seasons
Also known as a Senior Study, such projects are a distinctive feature of a Maryville College education in which every degree candidate works with a faculty supervisor to explore new facets of their major fields and integrate them with the educational goals of the MC curriculum. Camp Rain, Koonce said, is a facility in Decherd, Tennessee, that serves as both a conference center and a Christian camp for children and young adults. For her senior thesis, she’s analyzing the business side of the camp, working with the facility’s marketing director and helping staff members determine the best ways to manage growth.
It’s not dissimilar to the work she does for the S3 program, a position Fu helped her obtain. While she had no science background, her analytics and marketing studies made her a better fit, she said: She’s able to take scientific information, distill it into layman’s terms and present it in a way that’s both academic and entertaining.
“I love that I can post about something, and I have to do the research to make the post,” she says. “I get paid to look at really cool things and create a post about it, and I don’t have to talk super scientifically. I get to make posts on Instagram and Facebook for S3, and I get to spotlight the STEM students and what they’ve done, as well as our speakers and scientists. Brett helps me a lot, and right now, on the analytics side, I’m working on scraping Facebook for all the interactions we’ve had with our posts and seeing how followers interact. After I’m done, I’m going to compare that to another Maryville College social media account, see how they differ, and see how we can be better.”
Such a sense of institutional pride is important to Koonce, because she connected with Maryville College from the first time she set foot here. She recalls fondly the first time she visited the campus: It was a torrential downpour, and she walked the grounds under an umbrella and fell in love.
“It was so beautiful and perfect, and I thought, ‘If the campus is this pretty in the pouring down rain, how much prettier is it when it’s sunny?’” she says. “I liked how small it is, but it still has a big college feel. This was a perfect fit for me, because I love the scenery and the color, and I definitely think that being on a small campus, you’re able to connect with your professors.
“They reach out to you with opportunities consistently. I talk with Dr. Wei Fu regularly, because she’s always reaching out with someone I need to get in contact with, or another job opportunity I need to look at. I have friends who went to other schools, and they don’t have that. Some of them barely know their professors.”
At the same time, she’s found a group of friends from across the academic and athletics spectrum, another stark difference from her days at Snead State, where divisions by sport made connections with other students rare. In fact, she worked to return for the 2023-24 academic year, even though she could have graduated last spring. Another year of softball eligibility because of COVID-19 paved the way, but she marvels at the passage of time and the changes she’s experienced since donning the orange and garnet of what will soon be her alma mater.
“It’s a surreal moment, because I can’t believe my fall (softball) season is over,” she says. “I have math comps (comprehensive exams) next semester, and I just finished my business comps, where I focused on the energy drink industry. As I prepared for those, I was able to look back and see what I learned when I first got here, and how much I’ve learned over the past two years.
“It’s so important, I think, to get involved in something other than what you’re good at. I think that’s how you have the best experience here, by getting involved with people you wouldn’t normally get involved with and doing things that might be outside your comfort zone. They talk about studying everything to prepare for anything and everything, and that’s kind of fun! That’s truly how you have the best experience here.”