Sierra Clark apparently has taken to heart a piece of advice attributed to Confucius: “Choose a job you love and you’ll ewsletterever have to work a day in your life.”

Clark, a communications major who transferred to Adelphi last fall after finishing her freshman year at Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania, is now a senior communications major (specializing in journalism) and a marketing minor. She is also the top scorer on the Panthers women’s basketball team.

She was drawn by Adelphi’s strong communications program, she said, adding that the small class sizes were also important since “the intimate classroom settings allow for teacher-student interaction. And, of course, basketball was a big factor in my choosing Adelphi. Playing basketball is my passion, so I wanted to go to a school that had a great basketball program.”

Clark said both her parents played basketball while in college— Charmayne and Arthur played Division I basketball at Drexel University and Radford University, respectively—“so I followed them in that respect. But,” she pointed out, “when it comes to my career, I’m branching out from them. My mom is a lawyer and teaches on the side, and my dad works in IT and is also a pastor. What inspired me to get into public relations was the ability to help enhance a company or a team’s image. I also saw this as a great way to be able to have a career related to something I am passionate about.”

Associate Professor Mark Grabowski, J.D., who described Clark as a multitalented basketball player and journalist, mentioned that she’s the Panthers’ top scorer and was named last season to the Northeast-10 All-Rookie Team. She recently had stories published in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and the Webster Times and was the Department of Communications Student of the Month in March 2016, he added.

Clark, who has also been named MetLife’s Legacy Advisors Player of the Week several times since 2015, downplays her sports honors. “Basketball is a team sport with individual accolades, but I think just being able to put on a Panther jersey and going out every night and leaving everything on the court is my greatest achievement,” she said.

In mid-2015, sports gave Clark the chance to travel outside the United States for the first time, as part of the Beyond Sports third annual Costa Rica Basketball Tour. “I had the opportunity to play against the Costa Rican national team, which was really cool,” she said. “We also put on a couple of sports clinics during our time there—one for the Special Olympics and the other for a local elementary school. I also got to go zip lining on a volcano and visit a rain forest.”

She “would have loved to go” on Adelphi’s Cuba trip in January 2016, she said, but that fell “right in the middle of my [basketball] season.”

Looking beyond graduation, Clark already has her sights set on a public relations career. “I want to work in public relations for a professional sports team,” she said. “I’m from southern Maryland so my dream would be to work for any of the Washington, D.C., pro teams”—preferably the Wizards, she added.

In a May 2016 story in The Delphian, Adelphi’s student newspaper, Clark said she’s also considering another option: “I hope to eventually get into color commentating.”