Olivia Mora wrenches open her eyes. It’s just before nine on a mid-February Sunday morning …and it feels like it. The freshman volleyball player’s hamstrings ache from yesterday’s weight-lifting session, and the walk from her Morewood dorm to Skibo Gym—on the other side of campus—is going to be two things: frigid and desolate. More than that, she has a seven-page English paper to write by tomorrow morning. Nevertheless, she straps on her snow boots, throws on her coat, and crunches her way across campus.
She’s heading to a mentorship program called “Five for Five”—a joint venture between Carnegie Mellon’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council and Pittsburgh’s Coalition Against Violence—that will pair at-risk high school students with Carnegie Mellon student-athletes. Today, they’ll break the ice as they watch the men’s and women’s basketball game doubleheader against Emory University.
As Mora crosses the Cut, her mind teems with questions. What if they don’t want to talk to me? What do I even have to offer? I’m just a freshman. She heads inside, but the high school students are nowhere to be found. She props herself on the bleachers.
Just before tip-off, the students file in, most of them taking their first steps on a college campus. A young man sits next to Mora. He’s practically my age. After introducing herself, she asks, “Do you have a basketball team at your school?” Her new acquaintance, Maurice, replies. “Of course.”
As it turns out, Maurice, a senior, dreams of playing collegiate soccer. Mora learns he has already applied to a few schools, but Maurice confides that he hasn’t heard back yet. “What takes so long?” he asks. She tells him not to worry—it’ll all work out the way it’s supposed to. What else can she say?
For the next three hours, amid the whistles, cheers, and slam dunks, Maurice keeps the questions coming. “How do you study when you’re on the road for away games? Is college a lot more work? What’s off-season training like?” Finally—thank goodness—Maurice is out of questions. They exchange phone numbers, and Mora heads back to Morewood; her English paper is due in less than 19 hours.
They text each other over the next few weeks, and Mora keeps offering encouraging words. In late April, just as finals week looms, she gets another text: “I got into college!!!”
She smiles as if she just aced a final.
—Nicholas Ducassi (A’10)
