The junior Humanities major traveled with a dozen other Dominican students to New York City for three weeks to participate in a service-learning course called “Urban Community as Canvas for Social Change.” Woodglass scrubbed, cleaned, and painted murals and connected with the people who pass them every day.

In between, she managed to run and her training routine sounded more like a tour of Manhattan. One day she ran around Times Square to the Empire State Building. Another day she ran to the Brooklyn Bridge. Another day she ran in Central Park. She ran The High Line as well.

“And I left my mark on Wall Street,” Woodglass says, referring to the 70 x 8-foot “Alice In The Wall” land mural on West and Chambers streets she helped cleaned and re-paint for her CITYarts assignment.

Woodglass didn't run in a New York minute, but her daily romps around NYC presented her with a bigger challenge than she and her Dominican teammates will face this season, which begins September 1 when Dominican's women's and men's teams – and their new Head Coach Teressa DiPerna – compete in the University of San Francisco Invitational in Golden Gate Park.

The Marin County native, who lives in the tiny town of Mt. Shasta, encountered more barriers running around in the big city.

“In Mt. Shasta, everything is trees and lakes and you can run for 10 miles and not see anybody,” Woodglass says. “In New York City, there are just people everywhere. I was dodging people and running into people. It was an obstacle course … People were bumping into you and it was so easy to get irritated.”

Woodglass did not.

“It was so incredible,” she says. “I understand the whole 'I Love (Heart) New York City' T-shirt now.”

Woodglass has the same reverence for her cross country teammates. The men's team is paced by junior Kevin So, who led his teammates across the finish line first in six meets last season, though he was wearing a black cast on his left forearm in most of them. He was named the men's team's most outstanding runner for the second year in a row.

For the Dominican women, senior Ally Rosemond, named “Newcomer of the Year” last season for the Lady Penguins, returns along with junior Renee Dominguez and sophomore Alexis Valdovinos.

“I've always had so much fun with this team. It feels like it's new again,” Woodglass says. “I'm sore and exhausted but I am so excited for this season. I'm ready for it to start and so are my teammates.”

Add DiPerna to the mix of Penguins looking forward to this cross country season.

“Kendra has a wonderful sense of humor and a great work ethic.  She is extremely positive and has a great connection with her teammates,” the new Dominican cross country coach says.
“They are all pulling together to encourage each other during practice and raise the performance level. “

Actually, when Woodglass, a two-time member of the Pacific West Conference All-Academic team, enrolled at Dominican, she didn't intend to run on the cross country team. She competed in cross country at Mt. Shasta High School and was a varsity letter winner in four sports: track, basketball, volleyball, and soccer. But she wanted to concentrate on her studies, including philosophy, at Dominican.

Then she was recruited to join the new Dominican cross country team, which was competing for the first time in NCAA Division II.

“I might as well try a sport,” Woodglass says. “I love being an athlete.”

She also loves service learning. She is a student leader in Dominican's service-learning program. Last year she presented “Moving From Passion To Action” at a workshop at the Bay Area Leadership and Social Justice Conference at UC Berkeley. Last May, she went to Seattle and presented in a continuums of service conference on the dilemmas and challenges of service learning.

“Service learning gives you a whole new perspective on the world,” Woodglass says. “You actually get into the community and talk with people about it. It's not about you going in and trying to help people. It's about going in and trying to empower people in what they need.”
Woodglass was good at that in New York City. It was nice to visit museums and take field trips and ride the subway to destinations she never imagined, but she left an imprint in the Big Apple beyond the murals.

“I just want to learn so much more. There is still so much out there that I've never experienced,” Woodglass says. “Traveling is a great way to re-ignite excitement about doing things.”

So is running in New York. She loves it.