TO THE LIMIT: Moniteau Grad Carmella Ryan Hectic Schedule Has Prepared Her for College Track and Field, Neuroscience Major at Westminster

WEST SUNBURY, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Carmella Ryan doesn’t know what she would do with an idle moment.

It just doesn’t exist in her world.

If the recent Moniteau graduate isn’t doing something — whether it is racing down the runway in the pole vault, leaping over a hurdle, dancing as part of the drill team, tutoring math or serving on numerous clubs — she’d be at a loss.

Lucky for her, that has rarely happened.

“I sometimes feel like I push myself to my limits,” she said, “just to see how far I can go.”

That included being involved in as many as 10 clubs and activities as a student at Moniteau.

Ryan has to pause several times to rattle them all off.

“Hold on, I’ll list them for you,” she said. “I was president of Moniteau Mentors; president of Moniteau Leo Club; vice president of senior representatives; vice president of student council; president of our senior class, too.

“OK. What else,” she added, pausing, “Public affairs officer for National Honors Society; president of prom committee; I was involved in math tutoring. There are others I was just members of.”

“I am very much someone who has a strict schedule,” Ryan continued. “I just plan it all out and if there’s stuff that’s too much, I’ll take it away.”

Track and field was Ryan’s main athletic passion.

Like in her every day life, Ryan dabbled in just about everything in that sport.

But it’s the pole vault at piqued her interest the most.

That event is not for the faint of heart and Ryan tackled it with her usual aplomb, even against her own better sense at times.

“With pole vault, you obviously can’t get right on the mat — you have to learn the technique first,” Ryan said. “But as soon as I actually got onto the mats, that’s when I knew that this was going to be my favorite event and my main event.”

Ryan will compete in the pole vault at Westminster College next year. She will also be a member of the dance and drill team there.

Even her major is time intensive.

Ryan will study neuroscience with the goal of become a neurologist.

“I’ve always been fascinated with the brain, the spinal system and the nervous system,” she said. “It wasn’t until I want to say maybe three or four year ago that I really came in tune with it.”

Ryan shadowed a neurologist in Butler, which only cemented her desire to enter that field.

“He gave me some books and told me everything that I needed to do,” Ryan said. “That’s when I knew that I wanted to do it.”

Ryan ultimately wants to specialize in Alzheimer’s disease to hopefully be a part of finding better treatments — and perhaps even a cure.

“I definitely want to be a part of something momentous,” she said.

Ryan, though, almost couldn’t be a part of the track and field team again because of a serious injury to her back.

“There was a moment there when I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do track in college because I injured my SI joint in my back,” Ryan said. “It’s actually kind of ironic because it’s part of the nervous system, which is what I’m going to college to study.”

Competing in the pole vault contributed to the injury, which caused severe pain in her sciatic nerve.

Ryan ignored the anguish and continued competing.

“I still kept doing it because I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” she said. “But I had to pull myself out of one of the meets because I just couldn’t do it. It was a week before districts, too, so that was really scary. It was at a point where I couldn’t even walk.”

Ryan gutted it out anyway and finished fourth at the District 9 meet.

When her season was over, she set about to heal and strengthen her back to keep her collegiate dream in the pole vault alive.

She’s made steady progress.

“Our athletic trainer gave me workouts to do so that it’s better for college,” Ryan said. “The SI joint, you can’t strengthen it by itself, so you have to strengthen the muscles around it in order for the SI joint to strengthen. I think I’m back on track now — no pun intended.”

Ryan was a part of two Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference championships for the Moniteau girls track and field team.

It was the bond she shared with her teammates that was most valuable to her, she said.

“Oh, it was amazing,” Ryan said. “That’s what makes the whole experience about being on the track and field team so worth while, having a supportive team and just being a part of it, to be able to support everyone around you, is something you can’t really describe.”

Ryan originally had her heart set on attending Carnegie Mellon, which was at the top of a very short list of area universities that offer neuroscience as a major.

Westminster College was one of them.

“They were recruiting me for cheer and track there and I just fell in love with the idea of Westminster,” Ryan said. “It took me three visits and I realized, ‘Yeah, that’s the school for me.’ It’s close to home, but it’s far enough away that I can start my own path.”

Ryan can’t wait to begin that journey.

“It’s to the point where that normally everyone is crying at graduation because they’re sad to leave,” Ryan said. “I’m not a very emotional person in general anyway, but I didn’t cry once because I’m excited to go to Westminster so much.”