On
the soccer field, Debbie Aller's job is to close doors and limit opportunities.
A junior defender on the Stony
Brook University
women's soccer team, Aller has been a mainstay on a Seawolves defense that has
produced 20 shutouts in her two and a half years at Stony Brook.
But
off the field, Aller's main focus has been opening doors and creating
opportunities for others.
The start of Aller's opportunity came in the summer
of 2008 when she took
part in a Study Abroad program in Tanzania. Aller enjoyed it so much
that she decided she would try and return the following summer. So she applied to
a program through the Undergraduate Reasearch & Creative Activities
department (URECA) that would allow her to combine study abroad with an
independent research project in the summer of 2009.
An
anthropology and environmental studies major that carries a 3.57 GPA, Aller was
accepted to the program in April. So she packed her bags and embarked on a two
week trip, with Stony Brook classmate Michelle Pizer, this past summer to the
Kondoa district of Tanzania for a research project on "Availability and
Quality of Drinking Water in Tanzania."
The purpose of Aller and Pizer's research project was to study the water
availability in the Dodoma Region which is one of driest areas in the country.
While
Pizer looked at the social aspects of water availability, Aller focused on the
biological part.
"I
did four tests on the water. I was looking for total micro-organisms, testing
for iron and manganese, looking for total coliform bacteria, and suspended
solids," Aller said. "We wanted to get
data on the quality of water in terms of contaminating microorganisms and
environmental factors that can inhibit disinfection treatments, particularly
the use of ultraviolet radiation."
Aller said that you could
tell the people they visited appreciated the work that she and Prizer were
doing.
"The best part for me was
when we got to a village, seeing how much the people wanted us there," she
said. "When we arrived in the village, and when they heard we were coming to
help with water, they were very enthusiastic. They all honestly want to know
the results to see what is wrong with their water."
Aller, along with Pizer, were
recently honored for their work in Tanzania
by the office of Undergraduate Academic Affairs at Stony Brook
University as the
Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities (URECA) Researcher of the
Month. The biological work that Aller did, however, was just a small part of
the impact she had while in Tanzania.
Aller had also brought soccer
balls with her when she visited in the summer of 2008. After the reaction she received
she decided that she was going to bring a whole lot more on this trip.
After learning that she was
going to be able to do the independent research project in Tanzania, Aller decided to collect old practice
jerseys, cleats, shin guards, running shoes, socks, and balls, from other Stony
Brook student-athletes, that she could bring over to Tanzania to distribute.
And collect she did. First,
she asked her teammates on the women's soccer team to donate equipment when
they were cleaning out their lockers. She collected equipment that most likely
would have been thrown away.
Aller then went to other
teams at the University and asked for their equipment as well. By the time she
was done she had acquired over 50 pounds of equipment to take over to Tanzania. It
was so much that she had to take two extra suitcases on the plane with her when
she left for Tanzania.
When she arrived in Tanzania, she
donated a majority of the equipment that she collected to an orphanage in
Kondoa. But she also handed out soccer balls at each village that she conducted
research at.
"The
children usually will make [soccer] balls out of string - or just trash and
will kick that around," Aller said. "So when I gave them a real soccer ball,
they didn't stop smiling."
After
being around Aller for almost three years and seeing what she has done both on
and off the field, Stony Brook women's soccer head coach Sue Ryan believes that
Aller is the perfect role model for what the college student-athlete should be.
"The essence of college athletics
is taking what you learn on the field and using it off the field to help
others," Ryan said.
"Deb has done that, she has taken
her passion for soccer and used it to help other people. She is the embodiment
of the term student-athlete."
The
passion for soccer that Ryan talks about has led Aller to be an anchor on the
Seawolves defense during her two and a half years at Stony Brook. But her
success on the field has not come without its share of obstacles.
A
local product from Ward Melville High School
in Setauket, N.Y., Aller came
off the bench as freshman and helped the Seawolves to the America East
semifinals at New Hampshire.
Stony Brook dropped a 2-1 overtime decision to the Wildcats but for Aller the
news was doubly as bad as she broke her leg in that game. The injury was
serious enough that it forced her to sit out the spring season as well as the
summer.
Showing her commitment and determination, Aller worked her way
back onto the field and ended up starting the final 10 games of the 2008 season
as the Seawolves put together their best season in program history, advancing
to the America East title game for the first time since 2002.
The
second-seeded Seawolves lost a close 2-1 decision to top-seeded Boston University
in the title game, with Aller starting and playing 63 minutes. The 63 minutes played is even more incredible considering
that Aller found out after the contest that she had been playing with a stress
fracture in her hip.
At
the team's 2008 postseason banquet, Ryan presented Aller with the Coaches award
for the tremendous adversity she had overcome not only in recovering from her
leg injury but also the courage she showed in battling through her stress
fracture.
Forced out of another spring season once again, Aller knew she
needed to rehab during the summer if she was to return to the line-up for her
junior season. So while she was in Tanzania conducting her research,
she made sure she worked out at local university tracks to help rehab her
injury.
Aller
admitted that she wondered if she would be able to come back from her second
major injury. But there was one thing more than anything else that drove her to
get back on the field with her teammates.
"After
having to leave the championship game against Boston University;
my only thought this summer was to rehab and get back on the field to help my
team win an America East championship this season," Aller said.
Ryan
had Aller take it slow early in the 2009 season, not wanting her to come back
too quickly from the injury. Aller returned to the starting lineup on Sept. 13
against Providence
in the Seawolves sixth game of the season. She then made her presence known
three days later at Yale, scoring the game-winning goal in overtime.
The goal against Yale aside, as a defender, Aller still knows what
she does best - she closes the door on opponent's opportunities.
But
not lost on Aller is the opportunity that Stony Brook
University has given her to also open doors for others.
"Stony Brook
University gives you so
many opportunities. It [Stony Brook] can open a lot of doors for you," Aller
said. "You just to have to be ambitious and want to make the most of that
opportunity."
Safe
to say that as many doors as Deb Aller has closed on the field, she has opened
up just as many off it.