Penn State women’s athletics initiative builds a community of athletes, alumni

It’s graduation time for the class of 2025. That means saying goodbye to college friends, to the Penn State campus, and for some athletes who won’t be competing professionally after college, they’re also saying goodbye to their sport.

Then what happens? Who are you now?

Those daunting questions lingering over the doorstep to the real world can be challenging to face head on, but Teammates For Life, a Penn State women’s athletics initiative, is on a mission to ease that transition.

In Teammates For Life, alumni connect with women student-athletes through mentorship, events and networking opportunities to learn about what happens after hanging up the Penn State jersey for the final time.

Teammates For Life was founded in 2023 not long after Penn State’s longest-serving field hockey coach, Char Morett Curtis, retired.

“It’s personal,” Curtis said. “I love my school and I want to find ways to stay engaged and I want to give back.”

Curtis played field hockey for Penn State in the ‘70s and was hired as the program’s head coach in 1987. She’s seen other schools with initiatives similar to Teammates For Life and knew there was a need for Penn State to do something similar.

“My focus to start this was to develop relationships and engage with the incredible women that we have as leaders on our campus and in our community ... that we can draw on to help, be potential mentors, but get involved in leadership and maybe internship opportunities,” Curtis said.

Former Penn State women athletes have been involved, but the network has expanded further — people just want to be involved.

Teammates For Life runs several “Pow-Her Hours” throughout the year, which are intimate conversations where student-athletes get to hear the real-life experiences from the Nittany Lions that came before them.

Katie Collins was one of the panelists on the most recent Pow-Her Hour — titled “Sink or Swim” — during Blue-White weekend and Teammates For Life’s second annual Celebration of Excellence.

Collins graduated from Penn State in 2000 with a degree in health policy and administration after being on the swimming and diving team. She currently runs her own biotech company and Abigail Collins, a Penn State clothing brand, designed to create more “elevated essentials” for women.

When Collins graduated, her transition out of college was a struggle, and she can relate to how current student-athletes are feeling.

“[Through Pow-Her Hours] we’re just preparing them for a better launch into the real world,” Collins said. “In a weird way, we’re coming back and now coaching the next generation for their time after sport, so I couldn’t have been more thrilled and honored to be a part of it.”

While Teammates For Life didn’t exist when Collins left Penn State, she had “the chat” — a group chat of 13 swimmers where they share their life’s “ups and downs and wins and losses.” Collins heard about the initiative through her former teammate, which brought her back to her alma mater.

“I pretty much grew up with them wherever we are,” Collins said. “We kind of picked up where we left off because they know you, they’ve seen you at your worst, they’ve seen you at your best.”

Olivia Damico is about to face what Collins did back in 2000: graduation.

On Sunday the soccer player will earn her master’s in business administration after earning her undergraduate degree in kinesiology last spring. While she plans on playing professionally first, once her soccer career is over, Damico wants to work in a director of operations role in athletics.

The Penn State women’s soccer team has a mentorship program through Teammates For Life that Damico benefited a lot from.

“It was really cool to connect with someone who was in the same situation as me like 10 years earlier and get their perspective on it,” Damico said. “It helps you feel even more a part of something bigger than yourself.”

She’s learned that there’s more to athletics because of Teammates For Life as it’s given her the opportunity to connect with other women outside of her sport. The women’s soccer program has always focused on the legacy and history of what it means to be a Penn Stater, and Teammates For Life has only furthered that through its mentorship programs.

Other teams are implementing the same and also starting LinkedIn Teammates for Life groups where former athletes can connect and widen the reach of their community.

“The time you have is really precious and so when you find really good people you kind of just want to stick with what you found,” Collins said. “These really are best friends that stick with you for life.”

Wherever Damico ends up next, she knows it won’t be hard to give back or be a mentor to someone else.

“The feeling is almost unspeakable,” Damico said. “These women were in my spot before, like we were all fighting for a common thing, I think it’s just so incredible.”

For more information on Teammates For Life, visit gopsusports.com/teammatesforlife