Regis Rising Star: Madison Cullinan

By Hadley Jenkins

Meet Madison Cullinan: a Regis senior who has been captain of the Rangers women’s soccer team for the past two years and has played on the team since her freshman year. Now on the threshold of graduation, Cullinan is figuring out how to continue her passions as she departs Regis.

For as long as she could remember, Cullinan has looked up to her mother’s career. As a physical therapist, her mother communicates with patients, guiding their healing. Graduating with her bachelor’s degree in health and exercise science this May, Cullinan will follow in her mother’s footsteps as she attends physical therapy school at Northern Arizona University.

“I got accepted into Northern Arizona University. So, I'll be attending physical therapy school in August. I'll go back to Arizona, my hometown, which I'm super excited for,” Cullinan said. “I'm done with soccer now since we ended in the fall. That's been kind of a challenge for me. How do I still find joy in my life? That was something that brought me so much joy from the sport that I loved and played for so long.”

As a Regis student-athlete, soccer has been an integral part of Cullinan’s college experience. But soccer wasn’t the only reason she decided to come to Regis.

Cullinan knew Regis would become her home for the next four years when she experienced Regis’ open, welcoming environment for herself. Her personal conviction for Regis’ Jesuit values drew her to the university, which she knew would shape her into a well-rounded professional ready to take on the challenges of today.

Through her fighting spirit on and off the field, Cullinan embodies the spirit of cura personalis, meaning “care for the whole person.” As a team captain for two years, she described the challenge of leading her peers and younger athletes – through the challenges of both athletics and academia.

In August of 2024, Cullinan, alongside academic dean of the Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions Linda Osterlund, alumna Demi Raines and faculty member Lea Stenerson, were invited to the inaugural “Girls in the Game” event, hosted by CBS Sports at the University of Denver. This event created a venue for women from sports organizations, professional teams and universities to share about their careers to inspire the next generation of female sports professionals. For Cullinan, this event was the culmination of the leadership that she had always aspired to.

“When I was growing up playing soccer, I'd always look up to the girls older than me and see what they were doing and what I should be doing to kind of be like them,” Cullinan said. “It was kind of like a full circle moment where I was now the at the age and, like, the quality of leader, where I could teach younger girls, so they have someone to look up to as well.”

Cullinan’s inspiring leadership overlaps with her career aspirations, as she contemplates specializing her skills to work with a professional sports team or in pediatrics. As she departs from Regis, Cullinan knows that the relationships she’s crafted through leadership will last her a lifetime.