In just one day, junior Emerson Dunning has gone from the electric atmosphere of the state championship floor to the quiet, cold turf for her first lacrosse practice, but this is nothing new for Emerson. Approximately 7% of high school athletes go on to play a varsity sport in college across NCAA Divisions I, II, and III. Dunning is now a part of that 7%. 

Dunning has decided to continue her lacrosse career at Framingham State University in Boston. For division three colleges, peak commitments occur from the fall to the early winter of their senior year, although for Emerson, after visiting Framingham, she knew it was the place for her, leading her to commit in the early spring of her junior year. 

“When I went to their camp it was just an amazing experience, I left there and knew it was the place for me. I had an overwhelming feeling of reassurance,” said Dunning. 

On top of lacrosse, Emerson is the upcoming captain for the Morgan girls soccer team and a member of the Morgan girls basketball team. Roughly only 10-30% of high school athletes play three sports due to the inability to make a year-long commitment, and this percentage continuously decreases over time as more athletes are specializing in one sport all year round. Emerson has played three sports all of her life. 

There are many proven benefits to playing three sports. The National Federation of State High School Associations Network held a workshop with Renee Regoli, the athletic director of Dobson High School, and BJ Kuntz, the director of athletics for the Renton School District, talking about the impact of playing three sports.

“A season starts, it ends, and you get to do a new one. So that resilience that you develop mentally is important, and then I would say participation in sports provides stress relief and friendships,” Kuntz said. “So, I think spending time with new classmates, new teammates, exercising in a new way, all of that contributes to the overall health and wellness of student-athletes,” said Kuntz.

Emerson is not a stranger to quick turnarounds, this past basketball season, the Morgan girls basketball team extended their season as much as they possibly could, making it to the state championship. This meant that for Emerson she would not even have a day in between sports, playing the state championship on Sunday and then having her first lacrosse practice on Monday. This is a prime example of the resilience she has needed to develop playing three sports.

Outside of sports, Emerson is involved in several clubs including Kindness Closet, Spirit Squad, Interact, React, Student Government, PAL club, Raffles for Wishes, and FCCLA. Furthermore, she has earned her way into Spanish National Honor Society, Technical National Honor Society, and National Honor Society. 

“I love being busy and being involved in many things, it’s important to me to have an influence and help my community, and I just enjoy being involved in school things,” said Dunning. 

A regular day for her looks like waking up, having a meeting for one of the clubs she is in through the school, going to school, going to a practice or game, and then coming home and having dinner and doing at least 2 hours of homework. 

On top of her sports and extracurriculars, Emerson also loves to sing. She has participated in the musical all three years she has been at Morgan, and before many of the Morgan girls basketball games she sung the national anthem. These past two years, she has gotten the opportunity to sing the national anthem before the girls basketball state championship at Mohegan Sun.

“The feeling of having my teammates, family, friends and community there and supporting me was such an amazing feeling, and just being out on that stage was so incredible just to look out and see everybody,” said Dunning. 

Even though Emerson loves to stay busy, at times it has consumed her and affected her mental health. Specifically throughout tech week of the musical, she struggled as she would go straight from school, to basketball, to play practice, where she would be until around 9 pm. She then had to go home and complete hours of homework from her rigorous courses, including advanced placement Spanish, advanced placement English Language and Composition, advanced placement Government, and honors Pre-Calculus. 

“This year I have struggled a lot with my mental health, I had all this homework and then lacrosse stuff and then all my extracurriculars that I had to do so I just started getting really stressed out and really struggled for a while, not knowing how to express that struggle,” said Dunning. 

Since these struggles, she has learned better time management skills and when to lean on other people, helping her to balance everything.

Looking into the future, Emerson plans to major in elementary education and become a teacher. She started volunteering with kids at twelve years old and she quickly fell in love with doing it. The biggest reason she aspires to become a teacher is because she wants to have a positive influence on the kids’ lives.

“The moment that solidified this for me was when my grandmother was toward the end of her life, she had students coming to visit her from 40 plus years ago. It was incredible to see the impact she had on their lives, and it motivates me to do the same thing for my future students.”

She hopes to be someone whose students feel comfortable going to while also fostering their needs and ambitions to learn and become better people. 

“I have found a true passion for teaching and I am just super excited to become a teacher,” said Dunning.

Her involvement in high school shows the value she places on hard work as she plans to pursue a career in education.