Statesman John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States, once said, "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."

If he was alive today, Adams could easily be referring to Hofstra University Cross Country senior co-captain Emily McLean-Loughlin. While Loughlin's story is not a rags-to-riches story, her journey to become the Pride's co-captain certainly is.

The second daughter born to Leslie, a purchasing manager for a mortgage company, and David McLean, a New York City police officer, Emily grew up in Plainview, Long Island. But the family moved to New Hampshire in 2005 after Emily's father retired from the NYPD.

As it would be for any teen or preteen, the move was tougher on Emily that it was for her sister, Laurie, who is three years older and was heading into high school. "My sister was heading into high school where it was new for most of the students," Emily recalls. "But because of the difference in grade school to middle school levels in New York and New Hampshire, I was placed into a school where the students knew each other for five years and I was the new kid."

But Emily's mother eased the transition by getting pen pals for both children, before the move, with some of their new classmates. "Initially, I made friends that way which was fantastic and I am glad she did it," the now Hofstra senior said. "The move was definitely hard and it took a really long time to get used to it. There was a lot of resistance on my part. As I matured, I have appreciated it a lot more."

The move to Jaffrey would have future benefits for Emily as she would become friends with a classmate named Devon, who would have an impact on her young life later on. But more about him later.

As a freshman at Conant, she was on the track and field team as a sprinter and was also in an outside gymnastics league. "After my freshman year, I was moved up in gymnastics to compete and had to choose between track and gymnastics," Loughlin said. "I tried winter track for about three weeks and since we didn't have an indoor facility, I decided that the cold was too much for me. I ran my first 5K that year and I was so disappointed with my time that I said that's it. So I decided to stay with gymnastics".

Participating on the optional level of gymnastics and having no allusions of being a competitive gymnast, Loughlin enjoyed the sport nonetheless. "I was down in the optional level but I was doing it for fun," Loughlin states. "I started in the seventh grade and that is extremely late if you want to do well in the sport. But I loved the coaches and the girls that I worked out with."

But by senior year of high school she qualified for the optional regional level. She was also in the second year of a friendship with an outgoing classmate, Devon Loughlin, whom she met, again, in sophomore band class as a sophomore. "Devon and I were in school together since middle school. He doesn't remember that but I sure do," Emily laughed. "So officially we met in my sophomore year but we didn't start dating until my senior year."

When it came time to pursue a college, Loughlin knew she wanted to leave the state and thought about Long Island. Even though her grandmother, Doris Muffoletto attended Hofstra, and her aunt, Meredith Muffoletto, and uncle, Michael Priest, met at Hofstra and are both graduates; it wasn't until future Hofstra Teacher of the Year (2014), Dr. Sarah Novak, Associate Professor of Psychology, told Loughlin's campus tour group the cold hard truth. "She straight up told us that you will not go anywhere with a bachelor's degree in psychology and that I would need an advanced degree," McLean-Loughlin recalled. "Other schools sugar-coated that but I appreciated the truth and it is what I wanted to do."

So while her boyfriend, who had previously joined the U.S. Marine Corps was serving his country, Loughlin headed off to Hofstra to study psychology on a Presidential Scholarship.

While jogging one day during her first year at the University, she noticed the same group of runners that she would see on her daily runs. But this day, Hofstra assistant cross country coach Tracy Koch turned around and headed for Loughlin. "Tracy said we see you all the time, are you training for something," Loughlin said. "She told me that the team was short-handed and invited me to stop by the office to talk to head cross country coach Pete Alfano about joining the team for the spring semester."

Loughlin thought about the offer and did some research, which included looking up times by standout, future friend and roommate Becky Celorio, which intimidated her. After consulting with her family and her now boyfriend, Devon, she decided to give it a try as a walk-on following the 2013 season.

Her joining the team that winter/spring provided some much needed friendship and support as the world seemed to be crashing all around her. "That semester, my mother was diagnosed with stage three inflammatory breast cancer and Devon was deployed overseas," Loughlin said. "Being so far from home and my mom, I felt helpless. But the team picked me up-this stranger that they found on the side of the road-and helped me get through a very difficult time. But in the end, my mom beat the cancer and Devon returned home safely."

Her first season with the Hofstra Cross Country team saw a new coach, Vince Giambanco, come on the scene during the summer. "From the very start, Emily's mind was in it and she was focused both academically and athletically," Giambanco said. "She did everything that we asked of her and more and was very pro-active in her approach."

Loughlin ran in all seven meets and placed 14th in 21:10 in her first outing, the St. John's-Hofstra Fall Festival. She would post her best 5K time of the season, 20:26, in her next meet at the LIU Post Invitational to place 30th. She was consistently one of Hofstra's scoring runners in meets and even was Hofstra's number two runner at the 6K CAA Championships. She also posted her best 6K time of the season (25:17) in the season-ending NCAA Regional. "I went into the season with the attitude of let's see what happens," Loughlin said. "But then my motivation became I want to be part of this team and I want to be faster." That was also the season in which she met her closest friends in Celorio and Lisa Eberwein, a friendship that has also developed into current roommates.

No longer a rookie for her second season in 2015, Loughlin had a better idea of training and knew to follow the leader and captain of the team in Celorio. "I watched everything that she did and how she chose to run the team," Loughlin said. "I think my junior year was a lot of working hard to be better."

She was also helped along by a large group of new runners in Angelica Peck, Felicia Banda and Mahlah Givehand to name a few, that challenged and pushed her. Loughlin broke her personal bests in both the 5K at the Brown Rothenberg Run (19:41) and the 6K at the CAA Championships (23:58). "My biggest goals as a junior were to crack the 20:00 mark in the 5K and keep shaving off time overall."

Loughlin's hard work was not lost on Giambanco who met with her last spring and challenged her for her senior season. "I see one of the roles of the team captain is to prepare the next team captain to take over," Loughlin said. "Becky did that for me and when I met with Coach Giambanco, he said you're the oldest now and it is time for you to step up and bring Felicia with you."

While the official words that both Loughlin and Banda were selected as co-captains didn't come until preseason training in Maine in August, Loughlin was also rewarded with some athletic aid for the first time in her athletic career.

"Becky Celorio did a fantastic job of bringing this program along and showing the women on the team how the little things that you do on a daily basis add up to make you more competitive," Giambanco stated. "Just watching Emily the past two years and Felicia last year, we thought the two of them would work well together in leading the team. We thought they brought different elements to the table. Emily is self-made and has worked her way into this role. Now, with all of her work over the years adding up, she is able to compete at a higher level. It's good for some of the younger women on the team to see that."

"I was really honored to be named captain," Loughlin said. "I think being an underdog for so long has helped me in many ways. You learn what is motivating for you and others and learn to be a leader. I want nothing else but the team to do well."

Loughlin certainly had an outstanding final season, breaking the 19:00 mark for a 5K personal best to finish second at the NJIT Tri-Challenge and posting a career-best 6K time at the Princeton Invitational.

"Both Emily and Felicia have done fantastic jobs as co-captains this season," Giambanco said. "Emily, as a role model, practices what she preaches. So when she asks the team to do or act in a certain way, they know she is doing it as well. I think that's a very important part of being a leader."

As she headed into her final race at the NCAA Northeast Regional at Van Cortland Park last week, Loughlin got a little reflective about her possible final race at Hofstra. "For this race, there was no such thing as a bad race for me," Loughlin stated. "I don't care about time or how I feel. If I am not completely exhausted at the finish line, then I am not done. But if I leave all I have on the course then I will walk away with the feeling that I did something." She did just that finishing just four seconds off her career best.

"Hofstra has been a great place for me," Loughlin said. "It's been a really special experience to watch the program grow and watch good coaching over the years. I enjoyed being part of this team for the past three years, encouraging your teammates and seeing us all do well is a great feeling."

The 2016 year has been a pretty good one for the former walk-on with one year of competitive running experience when she arrived at Hofstra. There was also one other major accomplishment of her year. She arrived at Hofstra in 2013 as Emily McLean and will leave as Emily Loughlin as she married that boy, now Sgt. Devon Loughlin, USMC, who went to middle school with her and became her boyfriend in her high school senior year, last summer. "It was never a question of if we were going to get married but, rather, when we were going to get married," Emily said.

Loughlin, a five time Dean's List student and a three-time CAA Commissioner's Academic Award recipient, now prepares to graduate in May and pursue a master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at a University to be determined. She also has one more year of eligibility, if she chooses to use it.

"I feel that some cross country runners who have been training since high school or longer, are done at the end of their senior year of college," Loughlin said. "But I feel like I am still in the high school phase of my running career since I started so late. I believe I would be giving up something if I totally stopped now."

Sounds like she is not finished yet.