As a long-time athlete, Alexa Schnittka (M.S. Sport Management, ’24) knows first-hand the performance pressure that most athletes face. Schnittka is not only a recent master’s graduate from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Education, Health and Human Sciences, but she is also the founder of Athlete Meditations, LLC, a company that provides meditation coaching for individuals and teams to enhance performance, improve mental health and achieve their goals.
Schnittka discovered the art of meditation five years ago and fell in love with the practice and its incredible benefits. She was coaching a high school soccer team at the time and began writing custom meditation scripts for the team, discovering how much she enjoyed the process. Her team went on to win the Division 1 State Title and she received great feedback on her meditation coaching, spurring its continued growth and inspiring her entrepreneurship.
From a Passion to a Business
While pursuing her master’s degree, Schnittka learned about the Graves Business Plan Competition and saw it as an excellent opportunity to validate her meditation business idea. She connected with the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and began meeting with their team of Entrepreneurs-in-Residence to develop her business.
“The Anderson Center has helped me in so many ways,” Schnittka says. “I think most importantly is the support that I’ve gotten from the people around me, like the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence that I have meetings with, and the financial support. All of it has helped me grow my business in ways that I had never imagined.”
She went on to place and receive funding from the Graves Business Plan Competition, using that money to create a website for Athlete Meditations.
Looking Forward
Many of Schnittka’s meditation coaching podcasts are available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube, as she desires to make meditation accessible for everyone. She also has larger goals for her business. “Ideally I would love to be the person for meditation coaching in sports, making it well known to every youth program across America,” she says. “I’d love to see meditation grow into the culture of sports. I think it’s so important for athletes’ well-being, sleep and stress levels.”
About the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
The Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is a university-based resource for entrepreneurship in the region and the state of Tennessee. Its mission is to foster an entrepreneurial culture at UT and across the state by developing student skills, providing experiential learning opportunities, conducting meaningful entrepreneurial research and connecting students with mentors and resources that enable them to successfully start and grow new businesses.
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CONTACT:
Brennan Hullett, brennan@utk.edu
