Courtesy of Cornell Athletics

Sydney Moore '24's impact reaches far beyond the volleyball court.

January 16, 2025

Let’s Talk About It: Sydney Moore’s Mission to Empower Student-Athletes 

Print More

Since the introduction of name, image and likeness deals to the NCAA in 2021, college athletes have been profoundly affected by changes in the sports industry.

Sydney Moore ’24 experienced the need for tools to navigate the modern college sports environment firsthand as a volleyball player at Cornell. NIL allowed college athletes to capitalize on their success through social media, brand collaborations or other business ventures.

Playing at a competitive level, Moore recognized the lack of an “outlet” for athletes to discuss how to navigate the commercialization of their personal brand through endorsements or business projects, while balancing their academic, athletic and personal commitments. Without the right tools to navigate these priorities, life can become difficult to balance, Moore explained. 

Now, at Syracuse University, Moore is pursuing her master’s degree in marketing at the Whitman School of Management and has just wrapped up her first and final volleyball season with The Orange. 

As an undergraduate, she worked with various athletic advocacy groups on campus, non-profit organizations and other companies to advocate for athletes. Most notably, Moore has collaborated with HeadSpace XR — a virtual reality and mixed reality mental health resource — to support athletes’ mental health As time went on, Moore wanted a platform to explore important issues and facilitate open discussions. 

In December 2023, Moore created her podcast “Let’s Talk About It” on her personal Instagram account. She initially featured Cornell athletes and, over time, built a rapport with other athletes across the country. Along with her podcast, Moore launched her consulting company, Thrive Insights, in October 2024. 

“While I am interviewing people, these podcasts are more like advice sessions for athletes to listen to,” Moore said. “Through the experiences of my guests, I hope other athletes can gain advice and help with any topic regarding being a student-athlete.”

Sydney Moore ’24 launched her podcast in 2023. Photo courtesy of Sydney Moore.

Her podcast covers topics including transferring, medically retiring and building an accepting team culture. 

Beyond her podcast, Moore has spoken about athletic advocacy at various conferences, working towards pushing women’s support and advocating for the mental health of athletes. Most notably, Moore attended the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network Women + Sports Summit and the Black Student Athlete Summit in 2022 and the Athlete Con Resort and the Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference in 2024. 

In February 2022, Moore took her work even further. She worked to introduce the Fair Play for Women Act into Congress. She got involved in policy work through her time volunteering at the Voice In Sport Foundation and wanted to address gaps in Title IV she noticed through extensive research.

The bill worked to address discrimination against women in sports by ensuring equal and fair access to athletic opportunities in elementary, post-secondary and college levels. To promote the necessity of this bill and attract support for it, Moore hosted a panel in the Senate for the introduction of this bill.  

“I wanted to create a panel that was intriguing,” Moore said. “When you have these bill introductions it’s really just members of Congress [and] rarely the people who are actually represented by the bill invited, so we had different female athletes of different ages come to [Washington] D.C.”

In 2022, her congressional work was awarded at the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards with the Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award. Photo courtesy of Voice In Sport.

The following year, Moore was named one of Glamour Magazine’s 2023 College Women of the Year. 

From the Classroom to the Court 

Moore majored in psychology with a specialization in behavioral and evolutionary neuroscience in the College of Arts and Sciences.

She said she really appreciated the emphasis on human development in her major, describing how understanding psychology increased her awareness of why people may act in specific ways.

“In business having those psychology skills is so helpful. … But, moreover, as someone working in athletics, I apply those skills to help me have interesting conversations on the podcast and understand why athletes react a certain way in different situations,” Moore said. 

On her podcast, Moore often makes references to concepts she learned in her classes at Cornell. For example, in her psychology and neuroscience courses, Moore learned about how people take different cues from their environment and how this shapes their responses in athletics. She felt the athletic resources and community at Cornell contributed to her success early on. 

“Through my Cornell education I was being taught by the best in their fields — I learned how to be a leader through volleyball, but my academic education taught me how to do research, ask good questions and shar[e] those principles with my audience,” Moore said. 

In her athletic career for the Red, Moore was named captain of the volleyball team her senior year. She recorded a total of 260 kills, 650 total attacks and 212 total blocks. Moore accounted for 388 points in her three seasons. 

Moore played a crucial role on and off the court during her time at Cornell. Photo courtesy of Cornell Athletics.

Her successful athletic and academic career are something she attributed to the “uniqueness of the Ivy League.” Moore hopes to see the Ivy League continue to grow and prosper. 

“The Ivy League conference is incredibly underrated from an athletic standpoint,” Moore said. “That high academic standing and the opportunity for athletes to get well-rounded experiences.”

Now, as a member of the Cornell Alumni Advisory Board, Moore works with Cornell to improve the alumni experience. Specifically, Moore is tasked with helping students during their “first year out.”

Moore attributes her success to the “incredible and vast” alumni network that has supported her on every part of her journey. 

“I am still very close to our athletic director Dr. Nicki Moore and other students at Cornell. I went back this past Thanksgiving and visited my best friends from the Women of Color Athletics and the volleyball team,” Moore said. “I am still very connected to Cornell.”

Moore decided to attend Syracuse for her final year of eligibility for the opportunity to play volleyball in the ACC conference  — one of the highest levels of volleyball in the country — and due to her interest in entering the school’s business program. 

Moore noted her family’s continuous encouragement to welcome educational opportunities.  

“My parents and grandmother always would say that knowledge is never wasted and that if there was anything more I wanted to know to take that opportunity,” Moore said. “Being a Black woman, I was raised to know that opportunities do not always come around, you have to take advantage of them.”

In her single season at Syracuse, Moore accounted for 94 blocks and 116 kills. Of the 28 matches Moore appeared in for the Orange, she started in 24. Moore was also top-10 in blocks in the ACC. 

Thriving Together 

Moore started her own consulting firm called Thrive Insights in October 2024. Her company offers various support services to athletes by collaborating with brands, fans, coaches and athletic departments to help athletes flourish in every aspect of their lives. 

“Thrive Insights helps athletes in their villages — so their brands, families, athletic departments, programs and NIL deals,” Moore said. 

Moore felt that, as the chief executive officer of her own company, she finally had that “outlet” to unite all her various passions and endeavors. She hopes to continue working with athletes and see the Ivy League maintain its strong presence in athletics.

“As the company and podcast grow my main goal is to ensure that they stick to the principles I started them on, but I also want it to be a conversation starter for all athletes,” Moore said. 

Moore recommends any freshman college athlete listen to the following three podcast episodes: 

  1. Freshman Year Real Talk – Moore, Ava Bogan ’27, and Madison Wood ’27, current members of the women’s volleyball team, share their experiences as freshmen.
  2. Athlete Unionization – Kirby Porter, former guard for Harvard women’s basketball, discusses the professionalization of college athletics.
  3. Dealing w/ Disappointment – Moore and Vivian Spencer ’22, former Cornell lacrosse goalkeeper, talk about the challenges of transitioning from high school to college-level athletics.

“My goal is to continue to provide athletes with these resources … and see more [athletes] utilizing these resources like the podcast,” Moore said.