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Alicia Castillo (‘23) understands the meaning of dedication.

After all, she’s spent much of her life playing team sports — first indoor volleyball at Santa Clarita ����aa����ian School, then beach volleyball for The ����aa����. But for this alum, the commitment she developed at TMU finds its home on a bigger field: using sports to serve young men and women.

Last year, Castillo took on a new role as athletic coordinator for Second Baptist School, a university-model classical school based in Houston. The close-knit environment means Castillo has many opportunities to engage students outside of athletics. When she’s not coaching volleyball, scheduling practices, or communicating with staff, she’s serving as hall monitor or handing out meals in the lunchroom.

With so many different opportunities and challenges each day, Castillo says she’s blessed to have received the necessary guidance at TMU.

Castillo knew from the start that she wanted to work in athletics. She was initially a sport management major, but a conversation with the provost during her junior year introduced her to a new program: interdisciplinary studies (IDS).

At TMU, IDS students customize the program by choosing two (or more) degree tracks that intersect with their unique passions and goals. Castillo was able to continue studying sport management with her first track while adding a second concentration in biblical counseling. Her degree change proved to be valuable preparation for what came after.

In her capstone project for the IDS program, Castillo interviewed several athletic directors to glean insight from their experiences, developing five convictions to ground her own career. And in her senior year, she successfully landed an internship at her former high school as assistant athletic director.

Castillo says TMU’s sport management courses equipped her to handle all facets of athletic leadership. “I was prepared for everything,” she said, “from the logistics of facility maintenance to the actual discipleship part of coaching and the influence that you have.”

It took Castillo more thought to decide her second IDS concentration. But then she encountered the Introduction to Biblical Counseling course with Dr. Greg Gifford.

“After I took that class,” she said, “I was like, ‘Oh, 100 percent. This is where I need to be.’”

Castillo’s biblical counseling training has benefited her in other aspects of her day-to-day work. “It has done a great job to prepare me to do ministry with people,” she said. “There’s conflicts and things that come up, and you need to know how to deal with them. So the sport management side prepared my mind and my physical self, and the biblical counseling part prepared my heart.”

Once, Castillo dreamed of working for a pro team. Now, her goal is discipleship — to reach out to the young athletes and students in her path.

“This is where the Lord has me,” she said. “These are the people He’s put in front of me. I just want to minister to them. I just want these girls to love their Lord, and to see their passion grow.”

Explore how an interdisciplinary studies degree can prepare you or someone you know to specialize in multiple areas at masters.edu/IDS.