Lori Wilson-Beckstrom Makes an Impact on and off the Volleyball Court

As do most athletes, Lori Wilson-Beckstrom has a very competitive presence on the floor. Focused on the point at hand, the 6-foot-1 outside hitter is one of the best servers on the Utah State [University] women's volleyball team, a relentless player and a true gamer in every sense of the word. She will dive for wayward balls, block opposing shots and do anything and everything for the Aggies to come out on top.

 

Off the court, however, the 21-year-old junior from Provo has a perspective few athletes her age can match. It all started three years ago when her anesthesiologist father, Thayne, invited her along on a trip to Guatemala while working for an organization called Hirsche Smiles. Founded in 1990 by Dr. Blayne L. Hirsche and Dr. Michael Chandler, the non-profit organization works to provide healthcare services to underprivileged children in South America, specializing in cleft lip and palate reconstructions. Following her senior year of high school, Wilson-Beckstrom joined her father on one of his many trips to the country, working as a photographer to help document the good work done by the organization.

 

"My senior year in high school is when I went, and pretty much I was given the job of being the photographer," said Wilson-Beckstrom. "I had a big old camera and I would go in and take pictures of the kids before they had surgery, and sometimes when they were having surgery, and obviously the before and after. The pictures helped in providing the organization funding."

 

The trip was an eye-opening experience for the then-high school senior, who was named to numerous all-state and all-tournament teams during her senior year at Provo High School. Accustomed to the modern conveniences of living in the United States, she was shocked to see the conditions in which many of the Guatemalan citizens lived and was in awe of the lack of medical care readily available to the average child.

 

"It was pretty much a life-changing experience," said Wilson-Beckstrom. "It makes you realize how fortunate you are to live in a country where you have modern technology. I mean, how many people do you see in this country who have an un-repaired cleft lip? But there, there are tons of people, and it's a simple little surgery. Just stuff like that we never really experience because our country is so modernized, but it's not like that down there at all. It was really eye-opening for me."

 

She was especially taken aback by the pains to which the parents of the children would go to have their young ones taken care of through the aid of modern medicine. Looking back through a photo album of her time in Guatemala [prompted memories].

 

"The people who came were just dirt poor,” she said. “One man traveled with his daughter for three days from the jungle. He didn't even speak Spanish; he spoke some Mayan dialect. And I was just amazed. It was an eye-opening experience."

 

The experience of aiding her father in providing care for the underprivileged children of Guatemala continues to stay with the two-time academic all-WAC selection, and has changed the way she views both the world and her role as student-athlete. Among the trip's many benefits, says Wilson-Beckstrom, was its humbling effect on her values. Also a competitive basketball player in high school, she maintains that the trip has taught her that sports aren't the most important aspect in life, and that there are greater issues at hand at the end of the day than whether or not the Aggies should win or lose on the court.

 

"Over my three years here, it has slowly come into perspective that this is an amazing opportunity for me to be here playing volleyball and to be going to school while having a scholarship," she says. "But at the same time, volleyball is not the biggest thing in the whole world. The trip just put things into perspective, and let me know there are bigger things than whether we lose or not."

 

The junior adds, "I'm so blessed to be here and I'm going to get my education so I can hopefully go help other people."

 

The lesson of just how fortunate she is to be an American is a lesson that many athletes take for granted, and one which is often lost in a sporting culture which all too often judges its athletes by winning percentages or statistics alone. While athletes are no less guilty than most Americans in looking past many of the world's problems, Wilson- Beckstrom thinks the humbling reminders of situations like those in Guatemala should serve to keep college students aware of the blessings in their own life. Not only that, but they should help motivate American college students, whether they are athletes or not, in giving back to those less fortunate throughout the world.

 

"We all know situations around the world which are obviously not ideal, and where there are people in poverty," said Wilson-Beckstrom. "But until you actually go and help someone or experience it first-hand, it is really easy to get caught up in materialistic things or things that don't really matter.

 

"I don't want to generalize athletes, but I think sometimes we do get caught up in things which don't matter. And that is something our coach reminds us of a lot."

 

Wilson-Beckstrom believes the experience benefited her in another way as well. While she has always been interested in working with children, she says the trip helped to give her a direction as to what she wants to do after graduation. Currently majoring in family, consumer, and human development, she says that she is not certain as to which exact career she will choose, but maintains that whatever she does in life, she will do it with the intention of helping those less fortunate.

 

"I just firmly believe that everyone should, if at all possible, take the chance to go somewhere and see and experience the things in other countries and realize how blessed we really are,” she said. “I realized from that trip that I am so lucky to live in the United States, to have a good education and have good technology and medicine."

 

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