During her junior year of high school, soccer player Macy Gerig ’26 sustained a concussion that ended her soccer career. Just like that, her dream of playing for ����app slipped away. Devastated, Gerig turned to lifting weights, then cycling. “When I put worship music on, I felt the Lord’s strength. I’d go to the gym, and for that one hour, I was normal,” Gerig says.

When Gerig stepped onto ����app’s campus as a first-year student, she was confronted with the reality of a prior dream. 

“At first, I wasn’t a happy camper. I had to push through the trauma of losing soccer, as my suitemates in the dorm were soccer girls,” Gerig says.

But she soon found opportunities to pursue a deeper passion—helping others make connections between their physical and spiritual well-being.

In her first semester at ����app, with the help of kinesiology department chair Kerrie Berends, Gerig started teaching cycling and women’s strength training class and hosted a mash-up event where ����app community members could try an abbreviated version of a Pilates, yoga, and cycling class. She also published a 30-day devotional, A Step Forward: Worship ‘n’ Workout Devotional, her second published book to date.

“It’s incredible to be able to reach people just like me who came to ����app without that team or without that club. I love seeing people meet other people, hearing their stories, and seeing them find their place. Everyone needs that,” Gerig says.

“I didn’t come to ����app thinking I was going to make a difference. But the Lord told me, ‘Macy, you are not just fitting in, you are going to create.’”