One of our own tried out for the 2012 Olympic Games this year. Kiara Jordan, 22, a psychology major in her senior year at MSU participated in a three-day tryout for the U.S. women’s national volleyball team. The university sent her on an all expense paid trip to Colorado Springs, where she competed with about 300 other women.

“It was awesome, besides it being 13 degrees and snowing,” Jordan said.

She roomed in the dorms at the Olympic training center with two girls from Michigan.

The first day of trials consisted of “six on six” scrimmaging. The second day focused on individual work such as passing and servicing, the third day was filled with more scrimmaging.

She was told she did a great job despite not being accepted to represent the U.S. at the Olympics.

A quote she lives by is “Live every day as if it were your last,” and she enjoyed every minute of this experience.

“I never in my life dreamed that I would be at a U.S. National Team tryout. I’m so grateful for the opportunities that I’ve been given in life. It was a humbling experience and you never know what you can accomplish if you don’t try,” she said.

Jordan got to meet Karch Kiraly, an American volleyball player who is the only person to have won Olympic gold medals in both indoor and beach volleyball. She got some good tips and advice from him and he signed one of her shirts.

One of her favorite quotes she heard during the tryouts is, “The ignorance of a man is believing what you did yesterday is sufficient enough for today.”  This really motivates her and pushes her to do her best every day.

Kiara Jordan has been playing sports most of her life.

Her mother, Crata, who was a volleyball, basketball and track coach started her off playing basketball and softball in the 2nd grade. All the while she was learning the fundamentals of volleyball. She officially started playing volleyball on the A team in high school and played club volleyball during her off seasons. She has always been active in sports since she started.

Jordan’s mother is a major inspiration in her life. Crata raised her and her brothers Cory, 25 and Jordan, 14 as a single mother. She went back to school and just passed a test to become a principal and has ambitions of eventually becoming a superintendent. Another one of Jordan’s role models is Destiny Hooker, a member of the U.S. women’s national volleyball team. Hooker says, “If you put your mind to it you can be great at what ever you do.”

Jordan has had a very successful college volleyball career.

She has a very long list of accolades from her 4 years at MSU. Among these are being the first MSU volleyball player to earn All America honors in the NCAA, and being named Lone Star Conference Libero of the Year two seasons in a row.

She is a hard worker and believes in pushing herself towards excellence. She is set to graduate in December and looking forward to what the future brings.

“I would love to go to grad school at UNT and be in the sports psychology program, if not, I would enjoy going back home to coach high school volleyball,” Jordan said.