Scholar Stories: Dancer Heissenbuttel Making Future Focusing on People
12/6/2017 12:04:00 PM | Features, Spirit Department
Continuing the popular series that began in 2016-17, each Wednesday MGoBlue.com will highlight a Michigan student-athlete and their academic pursuits. These are our Scholar-Athlete Stories, presented by Prairie Farms.
By Brandon Koretz
When Karyn Heissenbuttel, a senior member of the University of Michigan dance team, was awaiting the results of the jazz final at the UCA and UDA College Cheerleading and Dance National Championships last January, she could feel the anticipation building as the places were being announced.
"When they called us for fifth place, I think everyone else thought we had won because we were so happy with how well we did," said Heissenbuttel. "That feeling is probably the best memory I have from dance."
Heissenbuttel was a captain of the team last year as a junior, helping lead the Wolverines to their best finish at nationals in program history. This season, she is again serving as one of the dance team captains. The senior is majoring in in biopsychology, cognition and neuroscience with minors in community action and social change, and crime and justice.
For Heissenbuttel, her leadership role provides a clear connection to her anticipated career path.
"Once I became a captain of the dance team my junior year, I noticed the captain role is kind of an HR-type role for the team," said Heissenbuttel. "I realized that's something I like to do, so why not do it professionally? The psychology background that BCN has was a huge help in my (job) interviews and being able to connect to people. My minor is great for groups, particularly with social change and social activism. It's all about organizing groups, which is also great for HR."
Heissenbuttel believes that being a captain for a dance team is different than it would be for other sports.
"We actually run auditions," she said. "We come up with all the skills that the candidates need to do as well as we choreograph dances for them to do and then we help judge to see if they have the dance skills they need. If they get to a certain point in the process, then we do in-person interviews where we get to be the interviewers and ask them questions to see if they're a culture fit. That's sort of like the talent acquisition part of HR. Employee relations is then kind of like our team relations."
Heissenbuttel used these experiences to land a human resources internship with McKinley this past summer.
"I was doing a lot of phone screens, reaching out to people to set up interviews and reviewing resumes," said Heissenbuttel. "I was also helping with day-to-day stuff like answering employee questions about benefits or compensation. Since it's a property management company, I actually got to go out to some of the sites and meet the people that worked there. It was really cool to have those face-to-face interactions with people I was previously just talking to on the phone. In that position, I learned that HR was something I definitely wanted to do post-graduation so the internship gave me a great sense of direction."
In addition to her work for McKinley and her role as captain of the dance team, Heissenbuttel also holds a position as an organizational development intern with the Office of the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at the University of Michigan. She is currently working on specific action plans for the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion strategic plan, including a data analysis of the tuition support program within the business and finance division of the University and an analysis of student workers and student interns.
Karyn Heissenbuttel is using her experiences as a two-time dance team captain to help her in her studies as well as on her chosen career path working in human resources.
Heissenbuttel recently accepted a position working in human resources with Dyson at the company's Chicago office after she graduates this spring.
Though her busy college schedule is a challenge, Heissenbuttel said she manages to stay organized in order to make it work.
"It's a lot," said Heissenbuttel. "All of our practices and most of our lifts are in the mornings, so I wake up and do that. Then all of my classes are in the afternoons, so I just go from practice to work to class."
According to Heissenbuttel, her coach, Valerie Stead Potsos, is very accommodating of the academic needs of her and her teammates.
"The thing that's great about the dance team is that our coach always says our priorities are family, school and then dance," said Heissenbuttel. "She's willing to work with you if you have to go to office hours to meet with a professor or if you have an exam.
"They work to help us build ourselves as dancers but also as young professionals. A majority of us are not going to be dancers after we graduate from Michigan so we're really building on skills that we'll carry with us into our jobs just as much as we're working on our actual dance skills."
Ultimately, Heissenbuttel said she was drawn to Michigan because of the combination of being able to compete at the highest level of her sport and the great academics.
"The thing that's different with the dance team is that we're basically a team of walk-ons," she said. "You have to get into the school by yourself and then you come and try out here. Michigan was honestly the best combination of everything I was looking for in a school."
Heissenbuttel, a native of Colorado, said she credits her late start to competitive dancing as a reason why she remains so passionate about it today.
"I didn't start competitively dancing until I was in seventh grade," she said. "Sometimes dancers get burnt out after high school, but since I started later, I knew it was something I wanted to do in college and wasn't ready to give up."
Now that she dances in college, she said "it's absolutely everything" to wear the Block M and represent Michigan.
"I take great pride in being able to be an ambassador for the school," said Heissenbuttel. "Especially being on the dance team, we have a lot more contact with fans, regents and donors so we have to make sure we're professional. The immense pride I have in being able to represent the school while doing what I absolutely love to do is something that I'll always carry with me. The pride I have in the Block M permeates into every interaction I have with people. It's just an amazing community and I'm happy to be a part of it."
