Lacey Carr got the whole Manchester thing from the beginning: Break out of your comfort zone. Try new things. Embrace change. Learn from differences.

She internalized those Manchester mantras even before she arrived on campus – sight unseen – for orientation nearly four years ago.

“I wanted the rural town aspect,” says the Indianapolis native. “I knew it was a small town and I knew it was different,” she says of North Manchester. “I just wanted to experience it.” She also wanted to minimize debt, and Manchester offered Lacey financial aid she couldn’t refuse. 

The decision paid off. “As soon as I stepped on campus everybody was very caring and open and everyone wanted to get to know me,” says the exercise science major.
 
Lacey immersed herself in student activities as a member of the African Student Association, the Exercise Science Club and, this year, as president of Black Student Union. She was a Student Orientation Leader for two years and has worked for Admissions as a Spartan ambassador, giving tours to prospective students and answering their questions.

Lacey’s other campus job is working as a student supervisor for University Advancement’s Phonathon, which began Feb. 18 and runs through April 19. It’s a “fun” job, she says, because it enables her to make friends with students from other majors – people she wouldn’t normally have classes with.

And because it’s Phonathon, she enjoys talking to alumni who share their stories and favorite memories. “Usually, that sparks a conversation,” she says, often about “how some things are the same and some things have evolved and changed.” The best things, she tells alumni, haven’t changed. “It’s still the same University,” Lacey says. “We still uphold the same values.”

One of those values is to make the world a better place, and Lacey has embraced that too. She discovered her calling when she saw a Facebook video of a little boy who was learning to walk on a prosthetic leg. “It just melted my heart,” she recalls. It was the moment she decided to become a physical therapist.

It’s a career that will take Lacey to graduate school, maybe back to Indianapolis, maybe to another small town, or maybe to somewhere else she’s never seen. After all, that leap of faith can change your life in good ways, Lacey will tell you. “I’m glad I came to Manchester.”

By Melinda Lantz ’81