This past summer, IU School of Public Health-Bloomington (SPH-B) students Julianna King, Anna Witte and Sophie Huber traveled with faculty member Kyle Kercher to Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK to begin initiating a global collaboration with the Indiana Hoosier Sport program. This experience was made possible thanks to a $5,000 grant through IU Hutton International Experiences Program (HEIP).
Since its inception in 2023, Hoosier Sport has established itself as a grassroots effort founded by SPH-B faculty, staff, and students that pairs IU undergraduates with youth in rural areas of Indiana to help promote the holistic power of sport. Three years later, the program is now poised to make the leap across the pond, thanks to Armin Marquez, assistant professor at Northumbria University and former SPH-B faculty member.
“Armin used to work in Sport Marketing and Management, and he moved to the UK about two years ago,” says Kercher, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology and one of the Hoosier Sport founders. “During his time at IU, we shared a lot of professional values, such as youth sport interest or student-centered work…it is really cool for it to circle back two years later into something more tangible than just office discussion.”
Having previous experience with study abroad programs in Madrid, Spain, Hoosier Sport senior undergraduate research assistant Huber helped lead the conversations with Northumbria faculty members on potential research grant collaborations, virtual exchanges in existing classes, and the development of a research focused study abroad program facilitated through IU Global. While at Northumbria, each Hoosier Sport team member presented a different aspect of youth sport research in Indiana, and met local UK community partners such as the Northumberland Football Association, Rise North East, and the Newcastle United Foundation.
“The biggest thing that stuck out was how volunteer-based the football [soccer] programs are in the UK,” says King, a graduate research associate for SPH-B and one of Huber’s mentors. “There may be a couple full-time employees running facilities but actual coaches and referees coming in are all volunteer based.”
Another big cultural difference Huber noticed was how undergraduate students at Northumbria had so much more research experience, as a dissertation is required for their graduation.
“Talking to students around my same age and hearing two different experiences of undergraduate program was surprising,” says Huber, who is majoring in Exercise Science with hopes of being an occupational therapist. “It was a great experience to lead all the meetings, creating relationships and building rapport with Dr. Marquez, the faculty, and students.”
Kercher says main goals for the five-day visit included building rapport and the foundation for multiple student-centered research initiatives using sport as a tool for youth development across UK and USA cultural contexts.
“Exploring the way sport is used in another country was thrilling, and I loved being able to see similarities and differences that are impossible to understand working only in Indiana,” says Witte, who is a senior undergraduate and future Master of Public Health (MPH) research assistant for Hoosier Sport. “A big takeaway for me was seeing the broader impacts of our work. While being able to share, and in turn, listen to colleagues at Northumbria we found so many connections we had and similar passions.”
The team hopes that not only will virtual research support experiences pan out from this partnership, but that a study abroad component at Northumbria can be added to the Hoosier Sport program in the coming years.
“Before this experience, I never really talked to any faculty aside from my teachers or Dr. Kercher,” says Huber. “I really grew in my ability to talk to faculty members… they wanted to hear my ideas as much as I wanted to hear theirs.”
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