Christina Dixon ‘07 is a fashion major at Savannah College of Art and Design. She is also an accomplished student-athlete with many accolades in basketball and has always had a strong dedication to serving her community.
Ever since she was a child, Dixon was always athletic. “The physical things like speed and jumping came naturally to me, but I wasn’t always the starting player––I had to hone in on my craft and improve my skills like shooting and my basketball IQ to work my way up.”
During her time at M-A, Dixon received many awards for basketball, including being named Student-Athlete of the Year for maintaining a high GPA and scoring the most points in the league throughout the year. She was also an International Most Valuable Player (MVP), Student-Athlete of the Week for six weeks straight, and team captain junior and senior years. She not only was the only freshman player on varsity her first year but was also a starting player.
Dixon said M-A was her “family away from family. If I ever needed help with anything, like school, I had a second support system with my teammates and coaches,” she said.
She received her International MVP award as a junior, traveling with the M-A team to tournaments in places like Edmonton, Canada. She said, “I see it being more of a gift than a reward. I attained it by simply working hard during every single game and never giving up, not because I played exceptionally every time. I wasn’t the highest scorer in every game, but I was getting rebounds and making assists. It’s something that will always be memorable to me.”
In addition to basketball, Dixon also joined the track and field team her sophomore year and became captain her junior year. She explained, “Track was definitely another natural talent, but I still did have to focus on getting better running techniques to make myself faster. It really enhanced my endurance on the basketball court, so it was a good addition.”
According to Dixon, the most important factor for balancing being a student-athlete was time management. She said, “In my household, school always came first, so if I wasn’t done with homework, I couldn’t go to practice. I had a calendar full of sticky notes for reminders, which has stuck with me even to this day.”
After graduating from high school, Dixon went to four different schools over five years. She first went to Ohlone College for two years, playing basketball both years and majoring in liberal arts. Then, she went to Cal State San Bernardino on a basketball scholarship. After one year, she transferred to Cal State Maritime. She then finished her undergraduate bachelor’s degree at Cal State Stanislaus, exhausting her four years of college basketball eligibility.
On her college basketball experience, she said, “It was lovely. I got to travel a lot and hone in on my skills athletically and mentally. I was able to meet so many new people and have so many new experiences, like signing autographs before I even turned 18 years old. It gave me a lot of life skills, like time management and leadership.”
But, being a student-athlete wasn’t always fun and games. “In college, there was a semester where my grades suffered because I was focusing more on basketball than school. I also had a coach at San Bernardino that I didn’t see eye to eye with, and it was a frustrating time for me.”
After graduating from CSU Stanislaus, Dixon worked a desk job for 18 months, which “was just complete trash. I needed something to engage me.”
She then became a park ranger for the City of San Leandro for seven years. She said, “I was very active, responding to different emergencies and hiking throughout the parks. I also got to be in the community and help people like I always wanted to.”
Basketball was still an important part of Dixon’s life, but she was not actively playing on a team.
In 2022, Dixon left her park ranger job and started working at the U.S. Department of Energy as a federal officer and was the only woman on the force. She said, “It was definitely difficult being the only female because I always had to be two steps ahead to keep up. I was in tip-top shape and was able to keep up with being in the top three of any athletic standard we had to hold ourselves to.”
Dixon always wanted to work in public service, and after a couple of years as a federal officer, she realized she could serve the community in a different way. “I only thought I could provide public service through some sort of emergency response position, but I started to look at things differently. I could serve people through fashion by styling and creating my design company to make them feel better about themselves and how they looked,” she said.
Now, Dixon is in her first semester at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia.
Reflecting on her experiences as a student-athlete, Dixon said, “It has built up my character and my resilience, persistence, and tenacity. It helped me learn that failures and mistakes are positive lessons learned.”
Dixon’s advice for current student-athletes: “Take every opportunity you can get, and take full advantage of the resources that M-A provides. Believe in yourself, dream big, then go for it.”
