Most students at Pace look forward to the weekend as a much-needed break from their usual commitments. But for Allison Phillips, the weekend serves as a shift from school responsibilities to extracurricular tasks. 

​Phillips is a sophomore digital cinema and filmmaking major, as well as a member of the Skyliners senior national synchronized skating team. This team is one of five national senior synchronized skating teams, and it is comprised of 20 athletes. 

This year alone, the Skyliners have finished first in the Cup of Berlin, second in the U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships, and second in the Mozart Cup.

Phillips also competed as a member of Team USA’s figure skating team this year in the World Sychronized Skating Championships in Sweden.

Even though Pace does not have a figure skating team, figure skating brought Phillips from Michigan to the university.     

​“I chose to come to Pace because the team that I’m on practices in Stamford, Connecticut, so it’s a close drive,” Phillips explained.

​It takes less than an hour to drive from Pace to Stamford. To some, this time and dedication to national figure skating might seem daunting. However, Phillips approaches this possible stressor with stride.

​“My team is really nice because we only practice on the weekends,” said Phillips. “During the week, I get to focus on school. During the weekend, I focus on skating. It just evens out… I don’t really get stressed out by that. College is more studying than homework, so there’s no deadlines. I can spread out my time more than I could in high school.”

Phillips’ positive attitude toward her full schedule and little free time comes from years of having to balance school, life, and skating. She began skating when she was five years old. It began as a hobby, something fun for her to participate in, but as she got older and began skating more often, it became a more serious staple in her life.

Phillips now skates almost year-round, with spring training in May and June before her season begins in August. 

“I did a lot of skating,” she said. “I really like skating, but I kind of missed out on a lot of stuff because people would ask, ‘Oh, can you do this?’ and I’d say, ‘No, I have practice.”

However, Phillips’ practice has paid off. As a child, she dreamed of being on an amazing senior team and competing in the World Synchronized Skating Championships. She never believed her dream would actually become a reality, but it did. Not only did Phillips reach many of her figure skating goals, but she also has learned plenty of lessons through figure skating. 

“It’s taught me how to balance stuff in life, how to work as a team, how to communicate to people,” said Phillips.

With having already had so much success, Phillips has been thinking about her figure skating future. As she progresses in her college career and thinks about internships and jobs, she wonders how figure skating will fit in.

“I’m really contemplating not doing it next year,” said Phillips. “I really would like to skate next year, but it’s really expensive. And I also feel like I’m missing out on a lot of college things. There’s always some events that I want to go to that I can’t go to because of skating. I didn’t get to go to one football game this year. If I keep skating, I don’t know if I can balance the time of figure skating and internships or jobs.” 

Ultimately, Phillips is not dissimilar from your everyday student. She enjoys hanging out at Kessel or Perk, with her go-to late night snack being Perk’s pigs in a blanket. The sophomore is also looking at internships and plans on applying to summer internships at NBC, with the ultimate career goal being to work for a broadcasting or TV company. 

While figure skating has been an integral part of Phillips’ life, she also credits Pace for changing her life.

“I think coming here has really changed my life because I’m so far from home, and it’s so different here,” she explained. “I had to learn how to be more independent and do things for myself since I don’t have my mom or my dad here to help me.”

Figure skating will continue to play a role in her life, at least for this season. Like all college students, Phillips in the process of reevaluating her priorities in order to ensure that she is working toward the goals most important to her.