statistics
name: Darius Lawton
College: health and human performance
Selection subjects: sports studies
Year: twenty one
Classification/Year: Senior
home town: norfolk, virginia
Hobbies/Interests: Shopping, playing and watching basketball and football, playing video games, making money, collecting shoes.
ECU is with you
How will I take my ECU with me after graduation? There are many, but my favorite memory of leaving ECU is when I had the opportunity to go to Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas this year.
A stroll with Darius Lawton around East Carolina University's athletic fields and the College of Health and Human Performance building is easily interrupted. Whether it's faculty, athletics operations staff, or users of his ECU Fitness, Instruction, Testing and Training Building, people love to stop and chat with Lawton.
This is a far cry from Lawton's first semester at ECU in 2020, when there was uncertainty amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I'm from out of state and I came here not knowing anyone, but I'm very proud,” said Lawton, a native of Norfolk, Virginia. Lawton will complete her Bachelor of Science in Sports Studies later this week. “I have always loved meeting people, but this has inspired me to open up and let people get to know me and be myself no matter the situation. Whether I participate in any activity or program is based on the people I meet. … I just go out and do it. I don't know if I like it or not until I try it.”
Lawton has enjoyed volunteering at the Super Bowl, being a student ambassador for HHP, a student employee for ECU Athletics, and a research assistant. He is collaborating with Dr. Viva Das on a funded research project on physical activity and life expectancy among Black former college athletes. It was inspired in part by the sudden death of Lawton's father, who played running back football at Norfolk State University, from a heart attack in 2016.
Lawton plans to return to East Carolina to continue his education in graduate school, studying sports exercise and psychology.
“It didn't sit well with me and I knew my dad was active throughout his life, even after sports, so I needed to do something that would honor him and give back. “There was,” Lawton said. Das and Dr. Christine Habeeb helped him grow holistically. “At the end of the day, I'm a Black person. I want to help the Black community (men, women, young people, old people). I just want to give back. I have strong people around me who have shaped me. There were black people, and I want to be that person for other people.”
Sports psychology has emerged as a key area of interest for Mr Lawton, who will continue on to the ECU School of Health and Human Performance to study sports exercise and psychology.
“We want to understand the peak of optical performance and why it varies,” he said. “Some athletes like pressure, some don't. Everyone is not the same, so everyone wants to understand how they behave.”
Lawton started his ECU journey with an introduction to Habeeb and the TEAM-OPPS Research Lab, which specializes in optimizing psychology in performance settings.
“This lab opened the door to everything for me,” Lawton said.
Fall 2024 Graduate Profile
