When Autumn McKenzie \u201997 was a senior, she led the volleyball team to victory in the NCAA play-in round, clinching a ticket to the Big Dance. It was the first time a Colgate women\u2019s team advanced to the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe celebrated like nobody\u2019s business,\u201d McKenzie remembers. \u201cThat moment was huge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A neuroscience major, McKenzie became the most decorated volleyball player in Raider history. She won Patriot League Rookie of the Year in 1993 and was a First Team All-Patriot League selection in her final three seasons in a Raider uniform. She took home Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year and tournament MVP as a senior. She finished her career by owning several program records, including Colgate\u2019s kills leader with 1,461.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through hard work and commitment on the court and in the classroom, McKenzie played a large part in setting the foundation for the success of women\u2019s athletics at Colgate. After volleyball\u2019s first tournament bid, the program would make four more appearances on the big stage throughout the years. In the last four seasons, Colgate reached the tournament twice, including last December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McKenzie says she\u2019s grateful for the women who pushed for change as Colgate adjusted to coeducation in the 1970s. \u201cWomen\u2019s sports at the collegiate level [are] necessary,\u201d McKenzie says. \u201cAthletics is one of those things where people treat it as a separate entity. But it\u2019s so important to life. I draw so much from it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After graduation, McKenzie earned a\nmaster of health sciences from Duke. Today,\nshe\u2019s an emergency medicine physician\nassistant at Johns Hopkins Hospital. In\naddition, McKenzie is a public speaker and\nblogger who encourages people to effect\nchange and pursue life with bold faith. And\nshe\u2019s a mother of four.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McKenzie credits various people for\nenriching her Colgate experience and helping\nher to excel. The names include Vicky Chun\n\u201991, MA\u201994, who coached the volleyball team\non its run to the NCAA tournament and is\nbeing honored as a Trailblazer of Distinction\nalong with McKenzie.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe knew how to push me and helped\nme feel like I was included in important\ndecisions,\u201d McKenzie says of Chun. \u201cI could\nnot have performed at the level I did without\nher help.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Off the court, McKenzie\u2019s academic\nadviser, Jun Yoshino, associate professor of\npsychology and neuroscience, was another\nimportant figure in her life. Yoshino was\npresent at McKenzie\u2019s games. He knew\nvolleyball and academics were equally\nsignificant to McKenzie, and worked with her\nin balancing the two.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe saw it in my eyes and said, \u2018OK, we\nare going to figure out a way to make this\nhappen,\u2019\u201d she says.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her experience as a student-athlete also\nled to bonds that exist today. When McKenzie\nlost her husband to cancer in 2014, her\nvolleyball teammates came to her aid.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy team folded around me in such a\npowerful and wonderful way,\u201d she says.\n\u201cWhen I say everybody showed up for me, I\nmean every one of them. They all showed up\nin some way or form.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McKenzie has often returned to Hamilton for events and has spent time at volleyball practices, meeting with current student- athletes. \u201cThere are so many ways that Colgate continues to add value to my life, so I always look for ways to give back to Colgate,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McKenzie is one of five women to be honored as Colgate Trailblazers of Distinction. The recognition is part of the University\u2019s celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX and five decades of women’s athletics at the University. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Autumn McKenzie \u201997 is one of Colgate’s trailblazers of distinction, in honor of the Title IX anniversary. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1272,"featured_media":11218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[40,1153,279,1292,563,1260,1318,519],"coauthors":[1130],"class_list":["post-11003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni-spotlights","category-alumni-updates","tag-athletics","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-neuroscience","tag-patriot-league","tag-student-athletes","tag-title-ix","tag-trailblazer-of-distinction","tag-volleyball"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-2Rt","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/02\/mckenzie_autumn3-1_adobe_express.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11003"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11370,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11003\/revisions\/11370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11003"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}