ST. JOSEPH, Minn. -- Getting involved in the community around her has always been important to College of Saint Benedict senior Sydney Hunst.
 
At Owatonna High School, she played soccer and hockey, ran track, sang in choir, played in orchestra and was a member of the student council.
 
"Sometimes it got difficult to manage it all," Hunst recalled. "My mom would pick me up after hockey practice and we'd have to head immediately over to the high school to set up for a dance the student council was sponsoring. But that was the coolest thing about going to a smaller school. I had a chance to get involved in a lot of different things."
 
The opportunity to continue doing that is a big part of why Hunst chose St. Ben's.
 
"I remember coming on my campus tour and our guide was saying hi to all these people passing by," said Hunst, a 5-foot-6 forward who just completed her senior season on the Bennie hockey team. "It was pretty clear this was a tight-knit community, and everyone was supportive of one another. That was something that really appealed to me."
 
Hunst has gone on to bolster that community, both as a hockey player and as a member of CSB's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
 
The group, which is made up of representatives from each of the 11 varsity sports at the school, is a way for student-athletes to come together and give back on campus and in the wider Central Minnesota community.
 
That's done through community service projects, planning Bennie Game Day promotions to increase attendance at home athletic contests and sponsoring on-campus events like one Monday in conjunction with the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), which operates a registry of volunteer hematopoietic cell donors and umbilical cord blood units.
 
"I was initially asked about becoming one of the hockey representatives when I was a sophomore and I was really honored," Hunst said. "I knew this was a great way to get involved with the larger community around me the way I did in high school."
 
"Being part of SAAC is really rewarding," said Hunst. "It's not just a chance to give back to the community. It's also a way to get to know a lot of people you might not meet otherwise and really build your leadership capabilities."
 
The 2023-24 school year was a time of transition for SAAC as former head athletic trainer Erin Ross, the group's advisor, left the school. Newly hired assistant athletic director Jon Roesch took over the role, and heading into this year, he leaned heavily on leaders like Hunst and Sophia Jonas, a senior basketball and tennis star, to get the organization back to running at full capacity.
 
"(Hunst has) spearheaded a number of initiatives that we've undertaken this year," Roesch said. "She's very much a go-getter. She's immersed in this campus. She's immersed in athletics and she's someone who wants to get things done."
 
"People gravitate toward her. She always has a smile on her face. Through both her actions and attitude, she's really able to build connections," said Roesch.
 
Jonas began the year as SAAC president, but quickly recruited Hunst to serve with her in a co-president role.
 
"Honestly, I couldn't have done this without her," Jonas said. "She cares so much about athletes and does so much behind-the-scenes to get athletes and the rest of the community on campus supporting each other. She's a really great leader."
 
Those leadership skills also helped Hunst in hockey, where she played a key part behind the scenes as the team finished 12-10-3 this past season. She was part of a program that won 47 games over a four-year period, the second best mark in school history.
 
"Syd played a massive role in the culture shift in our program," CSB head coach Lindsay Macy said. "She's the kind of kid who says what needs to be said and it's important to have players like that in a program. "She's always been kind of a guiding force – someone who does the right thing for the right reasons and very rarely thinks about herself."
 
Hockey has been such a big part of Hunst's life for so many years now that it's hard for her to believe her time as a player has come to an end.
 
"It's really started to hit me now that I actually have free time on my hands," said Hunst, who was also involved in 32 MIAC wins during her career. "I get done with class and there's no practice. It's bittersweet because I had such an amazing experience playing here and I'm so grateful. But I'm also sad because I don't get to come back next season and play with my teammates again."
 
Instead, Hunst – an exercise and health science major – will begin work on a graduate degree in physical therapy at Concordia-St. Paul this fall.
 
"I knew coming into college that I really wanted to do something in the health care field," she said. "Toward the end of my first semester, I had an awesome conversation with Don Fischer (chair of the exercise science and sports studies department).
 
"We talked through all the things I was passionate about and the different things I was drawn to," said Hunst. "That really helped me home in and decide I should give physical therapy a shot."
 
As she does, Hunst plans to continue getting involved in issues that affect the world around her.
 
"I've seen the impact even small gestures can have on a wider community, and it's important to me to continue to find ways to make that happen," she said. "I've never wanted to just be part of a community. I want to help shape it."