Laura Barrios Bardi (FR/El Paso, TX), a freshman middle blocker from El Paso, Texas, has sparked many connections across campus in her first year at USAO. Bardi is not only a member of the volleyball team, but also a photographer for the Sports Information Department, as well as the Communications and Marketing Department on campus.
Bardi grew up living in places such as Italy, Switzerland, Costa Rica, and Texas before making USAO her home. Before attending to college, Bardi took a gap year where she worked and, ironically, coached alongside USAO's head volleyball coach, Aminah Orozco. Bardi said that once Coach Orozco was offered the position at USAO they chatted about Bardi using her years of collegiate eligibility. Bardi watched the volleyball team play and eventually tried out and became a part of the team.
"I knew I always wanted to be coached by her, because I knew she would really push us. She knew how good we could be," said Bardi about Coach Orozco.
Bardi said Coach Orozco has made the team more disciplined overall and made noticeable differences in the team's strength by incorporating weights and training sessions. Bardi boasted these improvements throughout her 20 matches played this season, in which she earned 80 kills, eight service aces, 49 digs, 27 block assists, and a pair of solo blocks.
Bardi is currently a front row utility player, but Coach Orozco said she hopes to find one position for Bardi that is most beneficial for the team and would allow Bardi to grow as a player. While Bardi is out with an injury at the moment, it is Coach Orozco's goal to get Bardi back out on the court stronger and healthier than before.
"Laura is an outgoing, funny, and caring individual. She brings hard-work and dedication in her everyday life," said Coach Orozco.
Bardi is very well-known across campus for her photographs of USAO's various sports teams. Bardi has covered it all: track and field, soccer, softball, baseball and basketball just to name a few. Trial and error is Bardi's main learning technique. She mentioned she learned a lot from taking a photo of an object and then moving and figuring out how to adjust the settings from there.
"Honestly, the way I learned settings and how to play with it was through taking photos of my cat," said Bardi.
Bardi also said that she recently started utilizing Lightroom and other editing software more, and it has been a game changer for her. She said she had a lot of fun, and late nights, this summer experimenting with different settings to find her editing style.
Bardi says learning more every day, from her personal experiences or from a new friend is what inspires her. She said she feels like all of these great experiences are leading to something greater. She continued to make connections with teammates and other athletes within USAO's athletic community. Bardi, along with the volleyball team, hope that by attending other athletic events and showing their support, they will see it returned. Bardi emphasized making the little connections across campus, and hopes to see more people in the stands at volleyball games.
Coming back to school was a major transition for Bardi, she is currently majoring in art and considering a minor in either business or communications. Looking past graduation, Bardi said she hopes to continue doing similar work to what she does now. Her goal is to become a content creator for a specific sport, possibly in the realm of collegiate or professional athletics, where she would take photos and create graphics.
"It's not so much about what's happening in the game, but sometimes after the game. Just seeing their reactions after it all," said Bardi on why she enjoys covering athletic events.
As Bardi learns to juggle everything, from work to volleyball to academics to a social life, her advice to know your limits, learn to say no, and understand that it's okay to ask for help. She also mentioned how important it is to set priorities and get plenty of rest.
From everyone in Drover Nation, we would like to thank Laura for all she does in our athletic department, and she is such an incredible representative of our university!
To stay up to date on Laura's work, and to contact her about business inquiries, follow her on social media!
TWITTER: @lbarriosbardi
INSTAGRAM: @lbardiphoto
Original source can be found here
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