Kendall Pierce

Classroom

Kendall Pierce is a standout student in the classroom, having earned numerous academic accolades throughout her collegiate career at Penn State. A health policy and administration major, Pierce is also minoring in communications and sciences. Most recently, she was honored as a 2014-15 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar, a prestigious award presented to student-athletes who have recorded a minimum GPA of 3.7 or higher during the previous academic year. Pierce has also earned back-to-back Academic All-Big Ten selections from 2013-14. This past summer, she completed an internship at a local retirement community, The Village Atrium, where she worked in the recreation department with assisted living individuals. In addition, Pierce is a member of Spiritus Lionus, which is an intercollegiate athletics honor society at Penn State.

Character

Pierce’s character is highly regarded by both her teammates and coaches as she’s one of two team captains this year, serving as a leader on a young yet experienced team. Pierce is regularly involved in Penn State women’s volleyball’s “Happy Volley,” a large club tournament for high school volleyball players. In the last three years she’s served as both a counselor and coach to campers. Outside of the women’s volleyball team, she is active in Penn State’s student athlete advisory board (SAAB), having served as the organization’s treasurer in 2014. Pierce also serves as co-president of Penn State’s Athletes Take Action, an anti-bullying program for middle school students. As part of her responsibilities as co-president, Pierce and other student-athletes regularly visit local sixth-grade classrooms to talk to students about ways to stop and prevent bullying at school.

Community

In addition to her work with Happy Volley, SAAB and Athletes Take Action, Pierce volunteers regularly with the Special Olympics in State College, serving as a coach at the annual games each summer, teaching participants skills of the game. She serves as a representative for Uplifting Athletes, a non-profit organization headed primarily by the Penn State football team to raise funds for the Kidney Cancer Association. She is also a member of the Athletic Directors Leadership Institute at Penn State, which helps selected student-athletes develop leadership skills.

Competition

Throughout her time in the blue and white, Pierce has played integral roles in the back row and at the service line a for the Nittany Lions. As a member of this year’s senior class, she has helped Penn State to a combined record of 103-8 in the last three years as well as a 56-4 mark in Big Ten matches. Along with helping the team to consecutive Big Ten tiles in 2012-13, she was also a member of Penn State’s 2013-14 back-to-back NCAA National Championship teams. In 2014, she saw action in 37 of the team’s 39 matches, highlighting the season with a career-high five digs in the NCAA national semifinal victory against No. 1 Stanford. She also recorded two digs in the NCAA national title match against BYU. In 2015, she opened the first match of the season against Buffalo as the team’s starting libero in the opening set.