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Fever host IPS students for National Girls & Women in Sports Day

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH-TV) — Tamara Vaught said she wants to be attorney. 

“But first, I want to see if I can go to the Olympics for track and field,” the Arsenal Technical High School senior said.

Future lawyers, Olympians and engineers from Indianapolis Public Schools filled a room with potential Wednesday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse as part of the Indiana Fever’s Be INspired initiative. The goal was to teach girls from IPS about careers in the sports industry.

Shayna Sangster, associate director of marketing at Pacers Sports & Entertainment, said, “Just naturally, men have kind of been attracted to these roles. And so I think now, seeing opportunities like this allow women or girls to see that it is an opportunity or it is something you could be interested in rather than the stereotypical female roles or jobs.”

Multiple panels of women with careers in sports shared stories and goals with the high school girls. 

Donna Wilkinson, the Pacers senior vice president for human resources, said, “I’m a very competitive person, but it’s not all about winning. It’s about how you play the game and being there for your teammates. And sometimes you don’t have the better team, and learning how to deal with that disappointment together.” 

Kaitlyn Sintkowski, the Pacers digital marketing coordinator, said, “Empowering the people, empowering yourself. That’s all you really can do. That’s something easy that you chose to do.” 

Arsenal Technical High School junior Makaila Kremple said, “I didn’t even know half the stuff that was in the sports career. I didn’t know a lot about it so I learned a lot today.”

The role of women in sports has evolved over the course of the last 50 years and has created opportunities to pave the way for the next generation.

Kremple said, “Honestly, I think this is great for females just because females don’t get recognized as what they should. So it’s a good opportunity for a lot of females to get recognized and let their voice get heard.”