Cecily Berry
Business Administration: Finance Major, Piperton, Tenn.
Cecily Berry first heard of Union University when she lived in Jackson, Tennessee, for three years during elementary and middle school. She didn’t consider moving back to Jackson for college until she became interested in playing collegiate golf.
Berry expressed interest in Union’s golf team but was told the roster had already been filled. Discouraged, Berry wasn’t sure where she would go after high school.
“Approaching my senior year, everybody’s already signed to go play somewhere else, and I had nowhere else to go,” Berry said.
Still uncertain where she would attend school, Union’s golf coach, Ryan Chandler, reached out informing Cecily a spot had become available on the women’s golf team. Cecily accepted and started her first collegiate golf season in the fall of 2021.
While golf is what brought Berry to Union, she has become involved in several on-campus organizations. In addition to the rigorous schedule of a student-athlete, Berry is a student worker in the office of Student Leadership and Engagement and a member of the Union Honors Community.
Berry cites her involvement in the Honors Community as an important factor in helping her grow academically while at Union. As an honors student, Cecily has had the opportunity to take several courses on ideas such as “Beauty,” “Wisdom” and “Justice.”
“As I took ‘Wisdom,’ that taught me how to think outside of my own little box. It taught me how to question things and question why things are the way they are,” Berry said. “‘Beauty’ taught me how to slow down and appreciate the world around me as it is.”
Berry shared how she felt the openness of the Union community within her first few days on campus freshman year.
“Within week one, everyone was so open to just meeting me,” Berry said.
Now a sophomore, Berry has served as a Welcome Week and New Student Orientation leader and has experienced the same openness she felt during her freshman year amongst the Welcome Week and orientation leaders. Through welcoming new students, she has become even more connected at Union and grown in confidence.
“[Being a Welcome Week leader] gave me so much more confidence just to be who I am, because people actually like me for who I am instead of who they want me to be,” Berry said.
By Avery Chenault (’24)