Raluca Mita

Background

About Raluca Mita

Originally from Piatra-Neamt, Romania, I accepted a full tennis scholarship at Virginia Tech where I got my B.A. in International Studies and a minor in Communication. I got my Master's in Foreign Languages and Literature at Southern Illinois University. From 2016-2017 I worked as a graduate assistant for the tennis program at SIU and both women and men teams came in 2nd place in the MVC conference. During 2017-2019 I worked as an Athletic Academic Advisor at Southern Illinois University. Some of the duties that I had in that position were volunteer coordinator for over 350 student-athletes, SAAC (student-athlete advisory committee) liaison, life skills coordinator, monitoring student-athletes at risk and running events for student-athletes. In Fall 2018, SIU came in 2nd place in the nation among Division I schools during the NCAA Service Challenge ran by HelperHelper. During 2018-2019 academic year, SIU came in 4th place in the nation among Division I schools with 5,366 hours (the most in SIU history). In 2022, I completed my Doctorate degree in Educational Administration at SIU, which helped me develop skills such as program evaluation, personnel management, teamwork, and administrative skills. My dissertation topic, Division I Intercollegiate Athletics: Model Practices in Student-Athlete Development, helped me understand the needs of student-athletes during their transitions in and after college, and what student-athlete development professionals should implement to help with the success of their student-athletes. Being a former student-athlete and working with student-athletes for the past 3 years helped me improve skills as time management, working under pressure, teamwork, coachability, ability to face adversity and learn from failure. My future goal is to go back and work in an athletic department after I finish my doctorate. My passion is helping student-athletes become the best they can be. I want to become a Senior Woman Administrator in an athletic department and eventually an Athletic Director for a university.