WKU News

Zoe Avery, a Bowling Green, Kentucky native, is a Health Sciences Spring ’25 graduate.  Next fall, she will be starting a graduate program in Kinesiology and Sports Management at the Ohio State University. Growing up, Zoe didn’t plan on attending college until she realized it could be made possible through grants and funding. “Why not try? If I don't like it, I'll just drop, but I just found such a home here,” she said. “I'm so grateful. I came to college, and I think any path I would have taken after high school would have brought me back here.”  

“I really did not feel mentally stimulated until I joined the Honors College,” Zoe said. She joined the Mahurin Honors College because she knew she wanted to do a Capstone Experience/Thesis. Now, in her final year, she’s defended her CE/T over a six-week prenatal yoga intervention on hip mobility, maternal mental health and delivery outcomes. “I'm really passionate to see how we can benefit delivery outcomes, since maternal mortality, or infant mortality, is six times higher in the United States than it is in other developed countries,” she said.  

In this year-and-a-half long process, Zoe learned more than she ever imagined. She stayed in communication with all the participants involved in this study to encourage participation and retention. Her personability and communication skills led to all 20 people who she began the study with, staying until the end. She plans to expand on this research at Ohio State by looking at different sports teams, pregnant athletes, or other forms of prenatal care. “I want to take this, what I built here at the Honors College, and just grow it at other places to help as many people as I can,” she said.  

Outside of academics, Zoe is a private yoga contractor. She’s taught for several different sororities and campus organizations, leading yoga classes and teaching about physical and mental health. Her passion for yoga started when she was 15 years old and grew from there. “It taught me such healthy habits, internally and externally. When I became a freshman here at WKU, I wanted to expand that,” she said.  

In her freshman year, Zoe began and completed her 200-hour yoga training. Now, she has four different yoga/exercise certifications and will be working on her fifth this summer. “I think it’s super important to keep continuing my education. Stagnancy is a killer,” she said. In an ideal world, Zoe would love to travel the world and lead yoga retreats to teach people about anatomy, health, and philosophies. She wants to keep expanding her passions and help other people in the process.  

This summer, Zoe will be doing just that while studying abroad in Tanzania. “This program spoke to me more than any other program did. If I didn't get into this program, I wasn't going to do any,” she said. A lot of the trip is focused on maternal health, an issue she’s impassioned to improve in this country and others. Another large focus of the trip is educating children. She will get to teach about public health issues in the local schools there. Zoe has been leading HIV clinics on campus monthly for the last two years with WKU Campus Recreation and Wellness. “I'm really grateful to be able to take that to another country and expand on my knowledge there,” she said. While on the trip, she will visit Serengeti National Park during the Great Migration. This is particularly special to her because in her freshman year she worked at Animal Kingdom Lodge during her time with the Disney College Program. “So, I started out college in a place that was based off Tanzania, and I'm ending my time at WKU actually going to the place,” she said with a smile. 

Zoe is able to make this trip possible because she was a recipient of the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship in Fall 2024 for a summer 2025 study abroad experience and she was also selected as a recipient of the Phi Kappa Phi scholarship in Spring 2025. She applied for the Gilman scholarship in a previous cycle but wasn’t selected. She didn’t let this discourage her from applying again. “I decided pretty close to the deadline that I wanted to try again,” she said. She credits her success to the advisors in the Office of Scholar Development and the [Mahurin] Honors College. “They really supported me through the process, and it really allowed me to be able to apply for this and other scholarships and get a fully funded program,” she said.  

Her study abroad experience this summer will be her first time out of North America. It’s a scary and stressful time, but she’s got the outcome on her mind. “I know this is going to be a pivotal experience in my life,” she said. She urges everyone to “just do it. If you don’t like it, you can come home, but you’ll never know if you don’t like it or love it, if you don’t try.” Zoe’s story is a testament to always keep pushing yourself further and trying new things.