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From a nearly decade-long gap between high school and college, to his passion in a niche field of kinesiology, 91���� senior Ryan Hutchinson is proving that the road less traveled is sometimes the better one.

In Hutchinson’s own recollection, "I didn’t do great at the high school level.” He made the decision to enter the workforce after high school graduation, unsure if he was ready for the rigor of college-level academics. But after losing his retail job during the COVID-19 lockdown, Hutchinson decided to take the plunge and enrolled at Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) to get a personal trainer certificate.

“I ended up doing really well, grade-wise,” he said. “And I actually really loved it. So I decided to keep going.” With the certificate in hand, he transferred to George Mason to pursue a from the .

“I like helping people,” he said. “I’m good at motivating them.”

Hutchinson started volunteering at DPI Adaptive Fitness in Fairfax the summer before he transferred to George Mason. There, he discovered another, deeper layer to his passion for fitness and coaching: adaptive fitness, or fitness for people with physical and/or developmental disabilities.

Throughout his time at George Mason, Hutchinson has been taking his lessons from the classroom straight to his clients in the gym. Along with one-on-one training, Hutchinson coaches the adaptive boxing club at DPI, building the skills needed to hopefully one day reach his goal of coaching Paralympians.

“The best thing is seeing their progress,” he said of his clients. “The physical improvement, emotional improvement, cognitive improvement: seeing somebody who doesn't believe they can do something prove themselves wrong? It’s amazing.”

His interest in adaptive fitness also inspired his fellow students. A few of his classmates held internships with DPI after hearing about Hutchinson’s work. “They had no idea what adaptive fitness was, and now they’re trying it out, and will be able to tell others what it is. So we’re slowly building interest and understanding of a small but really important field,” he said.

That awareness is growing outside of kinesiology as well. During his senior year, Hutchinson got involved in George Mason’s developing Beep Baseball team: an adaptive version of baseball for blind and visually impaired athletes.

“They sort of made me an unofficial coach,” he joked.

Hutchinson helped run two Learn to Play clinics for the team and had the opportunity to attend a tournament last summer in Boston. “I try to volunteer for all the adaptive sports programs I can. It’s so interesting to see how they adapt these sports and to watch the elite athletes compete.”

With dreams of coaching as his guide, Hutchinson will be pursuing a master of education, focusing on adaptive physical education for children with disabilities at Old Dominion University in the fall.

“If I could tell an incoming freshman one thing, it would be to keep your perspective open,” he said. “You might show up wanting to go one direction, but opportunities will arise in adjacent fields, and it’s worth trying them out. There’s so much more out there than you think.”