BYU Marriott alum Alena J. Turner quite literally bends over backward to help others. The 2013 therapeutic recreation graduate has influenced many children—including her own—during her successful career as a gymnastics coach.
Turner got her start on the uneven bars and balance beam as a six-year-old living in Rhode Island and enjoyed her time tumbling and cartwheeling. She started coaching other gymnasts when she was sixteen and continued coaching up until last year, when she decided to stay home full-time with her two young children.
“I love gymnastics and working with young girls and young women and helping them understand how to move their bodies, work hard, and gain confidence,” Turner says. “Now I take my own daughter to a parent-participation gymnastics class, and I enjoy coaching her too.”
Involvement in gymnastics gave Turner appreciation for the human body and for helping others, which guided her during her time at BYU. She searched for a major that would enable her to stay active, impact others, and pursue her goal of motherhood. When she discovered therapeutic recreation (TR), Turner knew it was the perfect fit.
At that time, the TR program was new to BYU Marriott, and a TR club was in the works. Turner interviewed for a leadership position only one day after she declared her major, and she was selected as the first vice president of the BYU Therapeutic Recreation Club. Then she served as president the following year.
Turner’s involvement with TR spread beyond BYU Marriott. She combined her passions for gymnastics and TR with her work at AirTime Training Center in Springville, Utah, where she served as a gymnastics coach and as recreation director. She also ran health screening tests at the 2011 and 2012 Huntsman World Senior Games, and in 2013 she helped women recover from eating disorders during a summer internship at the Center for Change. After completing her degree in 2013, Turner became a certified therapeutic recreation specialist and continued coaching beginning gymnasts.
Turner’s knowledge of TR has benefitted her beyond her career. She credits her education for giving her the confidence during her bout of postpartum depression and anxiety to reach out to another struggling mother, which helped them both to heal.
“BYU taught me to look at health and wellness from a whole different perspective,” Turner says. “Health should be motivated not by how we look or what we can do but by a desire to improve our abilities to go and do and serve others.”
Currently Turner focuses on raising her kids while her husband and fellow BYU Marriott graduate, Jordan, pursues his MBA at the Kelley School of Business in Bloomington, Indiana. Turner’s other pursuits include writing books, creating art, and developing plans for a nonprofit organization that helps girls and young women gain confidence through yoga and outdoor activities. Fulfilling all these responsibilities is certainly a balancing act, but Turner nails the landing every time as she focuses on others.
“Life is stretching, but it’s amazing how looking outward for ways to serve and lift someone increases our ability to do more,” Turner says. “The world tells us to take care of ourselves. The Church and BYU help us learn how to take care of ourselves by caring for others, and that’s a life-changing difference.”
