Mika Nervick’s passion for community service and helping others

Student-athletes are high-profile members of college campuses and the surrounding communities. They are well-known among the student body, administrators, and the general public. This presents an opportunity to make a lasting impact on the community.

In Hamden, Conn., a member of the Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team has made a significant impact on her community. Mika Nervick, a graduating senior, is heavily involved with community service, most notably mental health awareness on campus and a mentorship program with a local high school.

Her work has not gone unnoticed, as she is a finalist for the Hockey Humanitarian Award. It is given annually to a collegiate hockey player, and is meant to “acknowledge the accomplishments of personal character, scholarship, and the giving of oneself off the ice to the larger community as well,” according to the award website.

“… it’s basically impacted every aspect of my life.”

Nervick has been involved with community service since early in her college career. She first got involved early in her sophomore season, and progressively ramped up her participation as her career continued.

This year, her senior year, she is the community service coordinator for the Bobcats, and has taken the title to heart. Her initial interest in being involved in the community came from her belief in the significant impact a student athlete can have, as she shared with P&R in a phone interview.

“As an athlete we can make such impacts in the community with what we’ve learned through athletics: the hard practices, the tough losses, but also the good moments that come along with sports,” she said. “I just think that the characteristics that we learn along the long line of being an athlete for so long can really help out the community.”

Over the past three years that she has been heavily involved, the team has looked to find various opportunities that would benefit both the student athletes and the community. As the coordinator this year, Nervick has really felt the impact of these opportunities.

Sophs and Seniors spent their afternoon at the New Haven Soup Kitchen serving Thanksgiving Dinner! #HappyThanksgiving ???? pic.twitter.com/2sV1zqqB3U

— QU Women’s Hockey (@QU_WIH) November 24, 2016

“I’ve kind of made community service my own thing,” she explained. “I’ve gotten super passionate about it, and it’s basically impacted every aspect of my life. It’s changed the way that I think about relationships with people and the way that I prioritize doing things. It’s been a really special experience and one that I’m super grateful for.”

Mental Health Awareness

One of Nervick’s main areas of involvement within the community has been mental health. This is an area that she was especially passionate about, which was in part sparked by the story of Daron Richardson.

For those who are not aware, his story can be read on the Do It For Daron (DIFD) foundation website. Cydney Roesler, former captain of the Bobcats, knows the Richardsons, and initially got the team involved with the foundation.

This led the entire team to become very passionate about the foundation, and interested in learning more about mental health and how to help it. The disease also impacts her on a personal level.

“My sister has had severe depression and anxiety for about five years now, she said. “Just the way I’ve seen that disease kind of take over her life, it’s been important to me to try to find different ways to help out people with mental health and do my part in the big picture of what it means to help create a better light on mental health and to allow more people to understand it and have those uncomfortable conversations.”

“Everyone has a chance to make a difference…”

Nervick’s passion for the initiative has spread to her teammates as well. The team hosts a DIFD game to support the foundation. Every year the team has worn purple laces and used purple stick tape and put purple stickers on their helmets for the game.

This year, to expand their support, each player donated five dollars to DIFD in order to obtain the purple materials for the game. The team was able to raise over $1,000 this year in support of mental health initiatives.

One of the most well-known mental health initiatives is Bell Let’s Talk Day, which took place on January 25 this year. Nervick got involved, retweeting numerous tweets in support of the cause that day.

“It’s crazy to see the influence that big companies can have,” she remarked. “Even big people like NHL players tweet about that.

“Obviously bigger people and companies have more of a chance to make an impact, but I think normal people like you and me do too. … Everyone has a chance to make a difference in their own way.”

Mentorship Program

This year, Nervick developed and implemented a mentorship program for Quinnipiac student-athletes with local at-risk high school students. There are roughly 50 student athletes involved in the program.

Each has one mentee with whom they meet once or twice a month. They discuss things from life in general to current events. The goal of the program is to have 100 percent promotion for the high schoolers in the program to the next grade level.

“I just felt like there were so many lessons and things that we’ve learned that we can install in these kids who are going through a lot,” Nervick explained. “In high school, especially with high school sports, you’re trying to get into college and figure all this stuff out and you’re stressed out.

“This year the program is a pilot, so it’s had some ups and downs. It’s been a really cool experience and I’ve loved watching it develop. I’ve spent a lot of time putting work into making it all come together so it’s been really cool to see it play out over the last couple of months.”

As a pilot program, Nervick has worked hard to smooth out any kinks in the process. With it, she believes she has laid the foundation for a successful program that can continue into the future on campus. It’s certainly something that she will be monitoring as she moves on in her life.

“… these kids are excited about the next time that they get to meet with their mentor.”

Something that has stood out to her is how the mentorships have really been mutually beneficial. For the student-athletes, they have been able to gain confidence that they can help people. As for the students, they have received motivation to continue to progress through school.

“These kids are considered at risk to move on to the next grade level”, she said. “Talking to the principal, we’ve been seeing that these kids are excited about the next time that they get to meet with their mentor. Some of these kids have never been excited about something anytime they’ve been in high school.

“Seeing the development already, so quickly, just from the past couple of months, of all of these high school students who are getting excited about their futures, for some of them the first time in their whole life, is one of the greatest things that has come from it so far, just knowing that I’ve been a small piece in making this happen to those kids.”

A program like this is something that Nervick thinks can take place on campuses all across the country. As long as the student-athlete mentors have the drive to help the mentees, the program can be a success.

Future Endeavors

Nervick will graduate in May with a degree in public relations and a minor in international business. While she doesn’t have anything set in stone for her future yet, her passions developed during her time at Quinnipiac will likely have an impact.

“With how passionate I’ve gotten about community service over the past couple of years I see myself continuing to do things where I help people out,” she shared. “I obviously love sports, so I would love to stay around sports in some aspect.”

For now, once she graduates she hopes to head back home to Minnesota to figure out what exactly she wants to do moving forward. Her studies really taught her the importance of building and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships.

This is something she has shared with her teammates as they’ve become influential members of the community, and something that she will continue to carry with her in life.

As a student-athlete, she has been able to be a role model for young female hockey players in the community. She remembers how much she enjoyed opportunities to meet higher-level players as a child, so the opportunity to be on the other side is something she’s really enjoyed.

However, she has gone a step further, and set an incredible example for student-athletes at Quinnipiac and beyond with her involvement in the community. The mentorship program is something that will have a lasting impact on campus, and her passion for mental health initiatives is making a difference at Quinnipiac and with DIFD.

“It was just such a humbling experience.”

Her nomination and selection as a finalist for the Hockey Humanitarian award is certainly well-deserved.  She admittedly was honored by the recognition when she heard the news, but was quick to shift the focus to to the greater benefits of being selected.

“One of the cool parts of being recognized at such a high level is the attention that we’ve gotten for the causes that we’re passionate about,” she remarked. “Like the people who come up to me having conversations about DIFD or asking about the mentorship program. The recognition that I’ve gotten for things that are important to me is what has mattered the most.”

Also, as a top-five finalist for the award, she received a $500 check to give to the charity of her choosing. She of course chose the DIFD foundation.

“I remember going back to my room with my parents after that in tears,” she recalled. “I would never have been able to give them (the foundation) $500 on my own, which I would love to do, but just can’t afford it at this point. It was just such a humbling experience. The whole thing has been great. Obviously it’s not why you do the work, but it’s been a very humbling and exciting process over the last couple of months for sure.”

Nervick’s student-athlete experience was not what most would call traditional. She appeared in just 47 games over her career and didn’t register a point. However, she certainly made the most of her opportunity. As a result of this experience, she has a message that she wishes to share.

“You don’t have to be the best player on the team; you don’t have to be the superstar to make a difference in your community,” she reflected. “You can be the person who doesn’t even get onto the ice; you could be sitting in the stands, but just finding little ways to make something your own I think is really important for people to realize.

“Anybody can make a difference.”