Interview with Stephanie Rovetti, Olympic Bronze Medalist and USAHS MOT Student

Interview with Stephanie Rovetti, Olympic Bronze Medalist and USAHS MOT Student

[00:00:00] Stephanie Rovetti (USAHS OT Student): My name’s Steph Rovetti. I am an OT student in the Masters of Occupational Therapy program Flex here at St. Augustine. I’m in my seventh term, so getting close to doing field work. And I’ve been in this program for the last two and a half years, kind of as I’m building up to the Olympics. I’ve been traveling and training with the national team and kind of doing a dual program.

[00:00:28] Stephanie Rovetti (USAHS OT Student): Doing both at the same time is very challenging but rewarding. I think it takes a lot of understanding from my classmates and my professors. And you know, I’ll give kudos to them. They really worked with me and allowed me to kind of pursue my passion outside of school. And I think just balancing the two, there’s a lot of positives that I found that came from it of just having a bigger identity than just an athlete or you know, just an OT, you know, student.

[00:00:54] Stephanie Rovetti (USAHS OT Student): And really just gave me that more, like, balanced, well-rounded identity that really helped me kind of be a more well-rounded person. Which ultimately led to a better performance and led me to have these mental breaks in between where I could go to OT and then I could go work out and uh, just really gave me a different outlet.

[00:01:14] Stephanie Rovetti (USAHS OT Student): St. Augustine was one of the only programs that would allow me to pursue occupational therapy and pursue going to the Olympics. And, you know, the flex schedule where I could go in on the weekends when I’m not training, I mean, it meant the world to me because it meant that I could actually pursue something that I really, really wanted to do because athletic careers are so short and they end, and then you gotta do something else. And so just the, the opportunity that it had to just, like, be there and work with me on my schedule and my, what I wanted to do outside of that, it just meant, meant the world to me.

[00:01:50] Stephanie Rovetti (USAHS OT Student): Having Sarah in the PT program was it was so cool. It was so fun. Even though we weren’t in the same classes, there was a lot of similarities and things that maybe you know, at training, I’m like, “Oh, are, did you learn about this,” or, “What do you think about this?” And she’d kind of do the same. “I’m in this peds class, like, you know, what do you think about this?” And really cool to also just have an understanding, and I think this was a really unique situation, and circumstance outside of school that I think having someone to talk to of, like, “How are you handling training?” And, “Oh, we each had a double, you know, weekend day and then training, like, how are you handling that?” Or really just helped me kind of had to go through this thing together, which was really, really cool.

[00:02:26] Stephanie Rovetti (USAHS OT Student): I mean, the medal meant so much because we, you know, we sat four years before saying, “What is this medal gonna mean for us? Why do we want to achieve this medal? Like, why do we want to get this?” And a big reason was to, like, really create an American brand of rugby and create a legacy for American rugby and really create more opportunities for women and girls who want to get into sports and into that and to grow our sport. And so when we finally did achieve winning that bronze medal and then we came home with the massive amount of support and growth and just identity around USA Rugby, it was so, so special to just see, you know, four, six plus years of work to wanting to achieve something, to just see it come to fruition and come back home. It was kind of a, you know, you leave one way, you come back home another way. It just is really, really special and you know, something that I’ll never forget.