Get To Know Our Staff – Welcome Allison, Lauren & Joe
We’re excited to welcome three interns to the HEADstrong family this Spring! Get to know Allison Kovacs, Lauren Jeandell and Joe Augustine and what they’re bringing to the team this semester.
Allison is a junior at Widener University majoring in Sports Management. A huge sports fan, she was a competitive gymnast until she was 16 when she switched to lacrosse, where she found a home in the goal.
In addition to her duties with HEADstrong, she works in Widener’s athletic department and as a member of game day staff with the Philadelphia Eagles. At Widener, she works in the Athletic Communications office as a camera operator and also doing statistics for a variety of sports.
For Allison, HEADstrong and the organizations mission are personal, as her mother was diagnosed with cancer her senior year of high school. This previous March, doctors discovered that her cancer had came back and Allison wants to help other families like hers understand that they are not alone in the fight.
“I know directly what my family has gone through,” Allison explained. “Luckily we’re ok, but there are other families in our situation that aren’t and I really had a strong feeling that this was something I wanted to be a part of, to show these other families that even though you’re fighting through this, you can get through it and there are people out there that really do want to help.”
Lauren is a senior at Temple University where she is studying Sports Management and is originally from West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Prior to joining HEADstrong, Lauren did an internship with the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation that kickstarted her interest in community engagement within sports.
An athlete her entire life, Lauren knew that she wanted to make a career in the field while also using the platform of sports to help others. She feels that this internship can also help broaden her skill set so she can continue to help others down the line.
“I really love the message of helping people through sport,” Lauren said. “I also had a teammate when I was in middle school that had cancer, so I had a little bit of experience with it and saw how sports can help.”
Joe, also a senior Sport Management major, attends Neumann University. He grew up in Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania and has played lacrosse his whole life. He first became exposed to HEADstrong at tournaments, playing against teams from the HEADstrong Lacrosse Club and seeing staff sharing the foundations mission.
With over 13 years of playing experience and tons of life lessons learned from the game, he is excited to use his knowledge of lacrosse to connect with others that share a similar background while helping families affected by cancer.
“The passion that HEADstrong has for impacting peoples lives that are affected by cancer is something that I really wanted to give a helping hand to and I’m excited to do this semester,” he said.
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