April 1, 2024 • 55 mins
Brittany Simpson, Born and Raised in Sunrise fl. Playing soccer sinc the age of 3, Brittany attended an academic and athletic high school where she played varsity all 4 years, as well as being a part of various honor societies. She committed to Yales D1 soccer program after her sophomore year.
During College she play on the Yale Woman's soccer team for all 4 years while majoring in Chemistry. Captained her senior yea, she continued to play after graduating in England for over 2 years. She also played on the youth us national teams and finally with the Jamaican National 1st team, qualifying for the 2019 woman's world cup.
Currently she coaches girls 2013 youth team and the United Women's Soccer team. When not doing soccer, she is a senior scientist at Pfizer.
Summary:
Have you ever met someone who embodies the grit of an athlete and the brilliance of a scientist? Brittany Simpson, my latest guest, is just that—a soccer coach and senior scientist at Pfizer with a foot in two incredibly competitive worlds. As she recounts her journey from the sun-soaked soccer fields in Florida to the cutting-edge labs where the COVID-19 vaccine was born, you'll be inspired by her relentless pursuit of greatness despite the hurdles thrown her way.
Brittany's narrative paints a vivid picture of the dedication needed to perform at the highest levels, both academically and athletically. She shares the emotional rollercoaster of sustaining and recovering from career-threatening injuries, all while maintaining her academic focus and eventually leading her college team as captain. It's a compelling exploration of resilience, demonstrating that the drive to lead and overcome is just as applicable to the rigor of scientific discovery as it is to the strategy of the beautiful game.
Join us as we peel back the layers on what it takes to navigate the complex and demanding path to success. From the adrenaline of international soccer to the high stakes of pharmaceutical chemistry, Brittany's experiences underscore the importance of staying grounded, even in the face of global crises and shifting landscapes. Her story is a testament to the impact one can make when passion meets purpose, whether it's while coaching young athletes like my own daughter or spearheading scientific breakthroughs. This episode is a beacon for anyone striving to achieve their dreams in multiple arenas without sacrificing the essence of who they are.
See more at www.successinspanglish.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is Raul Lopez, and you're listening to.
How Do you Save Success inSpanglish?
The path to success isn't easyFor minorities and people of
color.
Many attempt this journey withlittle to no guidance.
Join me as I sit down withindividuals who share their
stories of perseverance so thattogether, we can learn how to
save success in Spanglish.
What's good, mi gente?
(00:38):
Welcome back.
It's your boy, Raul.
Thank you for joining me hereon how to Say Success in
Spanglish.
Today I have a very specialguest, Brittany Simpson.
Brittany, how's it going?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Good, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Good, good, good.
Brittany holds a place dear tomy heart because she coaches my
daughter in soccer, but she alsohas an amazing story.
So just to kind of give alittle intro on Brittany,
brittany Simpson was born andraised in Sunrise, florida.
She's been playing soccer sincethe age of three and also
attended an academic andathletic high school where she
(01:07):
played varsity all four years.
As well as being part ofvarious honor societies, she
committed to the Yale's D1soccer program after her
sophomore year.
During college, she played onthe Yale's women's soccer team
for all four years whilemajoring in chemistry A captain
her senior year.
She continued to play aftergraduating in England for over
two years.
She also played on the youthnational teams and finally with
(01:30):
the Jamaican national first teamqualifying for the 2019 Women's
World Cup.
Currently, she coaches girls2013 youth soccer, which
includes my daughter, as well asthe United Women's Soccer Team
as well.
Women's United the UnitedWomen's Soccer Team as well.
When not doing soccer, she'sjust a senior scientist at
Pfizer.
So how's it going, brittany?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Not too bad.
Thanks for having me Very, veryexcited.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, thank you so much for taking the time.
I mean from the moment we thisis my first year doing this
level of soccer with my daughter.
She's fairly new to soccer.
She's only been playing for acouple of years and when we
found out you had a coach, I waslike, oh my God, this is such
an amazing person.
I'm glad that my daughter hasthis person as a role model, so
thank you for helping her outwith everything.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Oh, of course she's lovely.
I love that team so much.
They're always super excited toshow up for practices games.
They super excited to show upfor practices games.
They, they want more practices.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Things like that, I just love to see, especially at
a young age.
So I'm excited.
Well, I guess, to start off,you know, tell me a little about
yourself.
You know who is?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
uh, brittany simpson sure, yeah, thanks so much for
the great intro as well.
That was great, um.
But yeah, just like you heard,um, I'm born and raised in
sunrise, florida.
Um lived there for a majorityof my life.
I have one older brother, so weboth played soccer from
starting at age three.
I actually played on a boysteam until I turned around 10 or
(02:52):
11.
Then I switched over to a girlsteam.
I always like to joke around andsay that I was born on a soccer
field because my dad alsoplayed soccer as well as
professionally.
So my parents, thankfully andI'm very blessed to say that,
like, I played every sport justto try out see what I was good
at.
Um, but you know, secretly, wealways knew it was going to
(03:12):
probably be soccer.
But my, if I wasn't, you know,at school or at my own games, I
was at my brother's games, um,and if we didn't have either of
those, I'm at the field, uh,practicing with my brother and
my dad.
So, um, soccer was definitely abig, you know, part of my life,
especially being Jamaican aswell.
A lot of my cousins, my uncles,all of them played soccer as
well, so it's all around that.
(03:34):
But the other side of me, likeyou heard, I'm a scientist at
Pfizer, so my mom was very bigon academics.
So they're like okay, you canplay soccer, that's great, but
you know you also have to excelin the in the classroom.
So growing up I was at a privateCatholic school my entire life
through college and I did veryhard, rigorous academics as well
(03:56):
, as you know, sports.
So majored in chemistry camestraight from freshman year of
college.
Within high school I knew Iwanted to do chemistry from, I
think, sophomore year I had areally really great chemistry
teacher.
She was very energetic, shejust made chemistry really
really fun.
So that kind of sparked my ideaof, okay, I'm pretty good at
(04:16):
this, maybe this could have goneto work out what kind of you
know, profession I can get outof this.
So that kind of got me thinkinggoing into college of like,
okay, what kind of specific kindof chemistry I want to do and
how do I get to where I want tobe?
So did that through college.
After my sophomore year of highschool actually, I committed to
(04:36):
Yale for soccer.
It was seems kind of early andit is early Making that decision
definitely came from, you know,my older brother who played
soccer at Penn State and myparents were, you know, huge,
huge help with that.
I was looking at differentschools.
You know different levels ofsoccer, but I also knew I wanted
to do really well in academics.
(04:57):
So why not do that in an IB?
You know, do D1 while alsodoing that?
Not the easiest task to do, butlet's see if I could try.
You know, um, and that was myparents biggest thing.
They're like, always aim highand you know see where you land
from there.
Um, they always wanted the bestfor us so they sacrificed a lot
for us to go um, do what weneeded to do.
(05:17):
So I committed there um, endedup playing all four years,
captained my last year at Yalewhich was amazing, love that
team Um, and majored inchemistry.
So with that I actually had aninternship at Pfizer Um and that
kind of directed me of okay, Iknow I want to do
pharmaceuticals, how do I getthere?
(05:38):
You know what things that Ineed to do.
Then I took that internship,learned a lot, came back to
school, learned a lot aboutresearch and you know things I
can kind of excel in and bettermy own skills.
And after that I knew I wantedto do post-school like work,
graduate work, whether it's PhD,master's, et cetera, et cetera.
So I have that one side of, youknow, being so driven in
(06:00):
chemistry and wanted to be thebest at that, but I also really
soccer, you know.
So I'm gonna continue.
Both people always ask me, likeyou know, that's hard, how do
you do that, especially at anivy, and chemistry alone is like
the craziest thing and it is.
I take that.
But you know, like I said, whenI was in middle school, I was
always doing two things I wasalways doing school and I was
(06:20):
always doing sports, um, and Idid that through high school and
did that through college.
So, even though, yes, the levelintensifies, it's still.
It was still kind of the samething for me.
I always knew that, like, thisis just my life.
I thought this was normal.
You know.
I didn't compare it to anythingelse, this is just what I knew.
I was very structured.
You know, I had this 10 minutesto eat my dinner and then I had
(06:41):
to do my homework and then Ihad practice.
Or you to eat my dinner, andthen I had to do my homework and
then I had practice, or youknow things like that.
It just seemed very normal tome and, like I said, I think
that started from young age withmy parents just being like okay
, if this is what you want to do, let's do it Well, like let's,
you know, put you in the bestspot, work very, very hard to
get you to you know where youwant to be.
So did all of that played whileI was getting my master's over
(07:03):
in England Again, kind of crazy,how did I think about it.
And then, like you mentioned, Iplayed on youth teams, youth
national teams, played with theJamaican team and ended up
getting a job at Pfizer and hardto turn that down.
So, of course, moved back overand now I'm a scientist there,
but still have the love forsoccer, of course.
(07:24):
So, even though I'm not playingprofessionally anymore, I
wanted to be involved as much aspossible.
So, you know, teaching yourdaughter and the rest of the
girls on the team is the mostfun thing for me, honestly, and
teaching the college girls whenthey come back out of college
during the summer.
Again, you know, different,different kind of level,
different kind of spot for me,whether being, you know, a
(07:47):
player versus a coach now, uh,but definitely very, very
fulfilling.
So very, very happy about thatnice.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It's a lot to be like to accomplish and it's I can't
imagine that drill.
I mean, when I was growing upas a kid, my dad was very strict
for college.
College was everything.
The only reason he let me playsports.
Uh well, he was a soccer guytoo.
So but I won't go into like whyI stopped playing soccer.
You know, um, I sat on thebench a lot because I was a big
(08:15):
chubby guy, so so it drew meaway from soccer.
I didn't, I didn't like playingsoccer because nobody ever let
me play.
So, um, eventually you know,when I get to high school, you
know we're playing sports and mydad's like you know everything
I had to do was for college, soI'm going to play football
because that's going to help me,could help me for college and
stuff like that.
So that balance was thatsomething you learned early on
(08:36):
because your parents wereguiding you on all that stuff?
Or in like, did they say youcould only play soccer after you
finish your homework?
You know you could only or did.
Did you have limits on thatfrom your parents?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
You know, I don't think we had particular limits.
I'm like you know you have todo this before this or you know
you have this time to do this.
I think it's because I alwaysjoke that my mom was very heavy
on academics and my dad washeavy on soccer, so I just had
one full percent on the other,100% on the other.
But it we had this verystructured schedule and a sense
(09:11):
of like you know, I have this 30minute block.
This is the only time I have todo my homework.
It's gonna get done in this 30minute block, so I just don't
have the time to do any otherthings.
And it's interesting becauseit's nothing I never, you know
it's not like oh, you got to godo your homework.
Like I was always excited to domy homework, like I just wanted
to go and do it, you know, andit was like okay, I can do this.
(09:34):
I know I have practice later,so I don't need to, you know,
sacrifice this because I want todo something else, like I could
just get it done and then moveon to the next thing.
And I, like I said, I don'tthink that was brought on more
so from my parents.
I want to say that's more sofrom my older brother.
He was, I mean, he is one ofthe best role models I have in
(09:55):
my life.
We're four years apart butwe're best friends.
Like that's my number one bestfriend, and he was very, very
good at keeping things in orderand, you know, placing where his
academics and where his sportswill be.
So I just kind of followed hislead of like okay, he's doing
his homework, this time I'mgonna do it with him and then we
can go outside and play somesoccer before our practices.
(10:16):
So I think a lot of that justkind of came from following what
my brother did.
He seemed to go well for him,so I was like okay, I'll do what
he's doing and see how thatgoes.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
So you said you went to an athletic academic school.
Is that like a special type ofschool or something you had to
apply to, or does it just happento be the school you went to
was really athletic.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, it was.
So I went to St Thomas Aquinasin Fort Lauderdale, florida, and
it's very heavy on well,technically, it's very heavy on
like football for guys, but it'sjust very, very good at sports
in general.
So it's an application process.
There's no scholarships when itcomes to sports, necessarily,
but there's a lot of academicscholarships.
So if you test well going inversus you know your grades from
(11:02):
middle school and things likethat, then you can get in and
excel through that.
But St Thomas is a veryinteresting place.
I love it with all my heart.
It's a Catholic private schoolas well, so that also kind of
helped those because I gotintroduced to so many.
You know different kinds ofpeople.
You know a lot of the kids thatcame out of there, especially,
(11:24):
like I said, for football.
They now play in the NFL.
Or you know a lot of myteammates that I played club
soccer with, also once my highschool.
So it was like I see them playhigh school soccer with them,
but I also play club soccer withthem.
So you know the team was verygood.
I think we won, we won, we wonStates all four years of my high
school, I believe and then onenational championship somewhere
(11:45):
in the middle, I think,sophomore, junior year.
So then you know, I still gotcompetitive soccer through that,
while you know Spanish HonorSociety, national Honor Society,
those kinds of things, becauseI needed to be in the AP class
in order to get into an Ivyschool, you know.
So it was just a very I wasvery blessed to be in that space
, to be able to do all of thosethings again at the same time.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, so you said you committed to Yale in your
sophomore year, and does thatmean that there was a certain
set of requirements that youneeded to maintain to continue
and go to Yale, or what?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
was that like Yep, yeah, so for you to be able to
commit to colleges that early,it's like a verbal commitment of
just like, okay, we both agreethat you know when it's time
which is, I think, senior yearyou do your signing day where
you know I'm committed to youand you're committed to me, kind
of thing.
But, like you said, there isrequirements, so you still have
to get your grades.
You got to keep your grades up.
(12:41):
You got to test.
Well, I took the ACTs at thattime, so you had a certain score
, you had the bank, all thatstuff.
Still, it's like a conditionaloffer in some senses.
I couldn't get a C, you knowthings like that.
It was just like this yes,we're committed to each other,
but you still got to kind of getyourself together, make sure
(13:01):
everything's on track.
You can't get in trouble whileyou know all those kinds of
things.
So it that kind of stuff didn'tscare me, especially committing
so early, because it was likeI'm gonna get in trouble with my
parents if I, you know, get a cor like whatever, you're the
least of my worries.
I was like this is fine, it'slike, don't worry about it.
Um, so, yeah, it's.
(13:22):
It's crazy because I feel likeit gets earlier and earlier for
people to commit, but again,it's a verbal commitment, so
things can change, Coaches canchange.
You know people that you talkto might not be there when
you're actually going there.
There's a lot of ifs and butswhen it comes to committing that
early, but you know, I was, Iwas very I would say I was
pretty easy with picking theschool that I wanted to go to,
because I had very specificthings I wanted.
(13:44):
I wanted a good school foracademics.
I wanted a good school forsoccer.
I knew I didn't want to stay inFlorida, more so because I can
always come home and see myfamily, and that was about it.
Like that was honestly, prettymuch it.
So it was just, you know,picking that and getting the
best offer I could was, you know, help out my parents as best as
I can.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
You know, that's all I wanted to do, and so what
impact did like club soccerversus high school sports, like
help in getting you in front ofsomeone from Yale.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, so I will say that, when it comes to
committing for soccer wise, thatcame more so from club soccer
than high school.
Of course, high school soccerwas so great like I said, we won
state champs and things likethat but I was seen throughout
for club um, I was on a veryinteresting club team where it
was just us as the um, the teamfor the entire club.
(14:38):
So, um, I was on this teamcalled Magic Jacks, uh, when I
was younger, and it was run bythis man called Dan Borslow, one
of the best people I've met inmy entire life, and he basically
built this team of justexcellent players from all
across the world.
Honestly, like we had a coupleof players that lived in
(15:00):
California that played with us.
We played with this womanthat's her.
Her name's Bunny.
She's one of the best playerson the Jamaica national team.
She played on my club team withus.
She came from Jamaica and cameand played.
We had two players from Sweden.
So it was just this hodgepodgeof a team of just amazing
players, but it helped in asense of I was seen all over the
(15:21):
world when it comes to, youknow, college coaches, national
team coaches, because we justplayed in every tournament there
was possible, honestly, and youknow, of course, when you're
winning tournaments, you'rewinning games, you're going to
be pulling a lot of you knowtrainers and things like coaches
and stuff like that to come seeyou.
So that helped me a lot when itcame to just being seen in the
soccer world.
(15:42):
But for academics wise, like Imentioned before, being in a
place where you know very strictprivate school, you're able to
do AP classes.
You're able to.
I did a couple like I did highschool classes when I was in
middle school because my brotherwas going there so I could go
there in the morning with himand then go back to my middle
school after.
(16:02):
So I was doing my algebra andcalculus class while I was in
middle school beforehand andstuff like that.
So it was just like chaotic, alittle bit chaotic, but you know
, again, I did those things likeI always wanted to do those
things.
So I was like I want to be, youknow, at the best school.
I know I have to work being aminority, like a black woman, I
know I have to work two times ashard just to be seen, whether
(16:24):
it's an academic, sports orwhatever it has to be.
So putting myself in thosequote unquote difficult
situations was okay with me,because I was like, okay, if
this is going to help me in thefuture, I'll do it Like I'll
work hard.
That's not.
That's not going to turn meaway.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
So what was kind of like your ultimate motivator?
Was it the hopes of becoming?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
no-transcript.
It ultimately comes down tolike, if I had those, you know,
as a young girl you always wantto be the best.
You want to be a professionalsoccer player.
You know, I looked up to AbbyWombat and like I was like I
want to play with her, um, andthings like that.
So it's interesting, Cause I Ipersonally don't think those
(17:22):
were like my driving force.
I honestly think I just alwayswanted to make my parents proud,
because they always say thatyou know, you're really good at
this.
Like if you just kind of focuson this, you'll be great.
So I'm like you know what?
You're right, Let me focus onthis and prove to them that like
, yes, I can do this.
I said my mom was very high inacademic.
(17:43):
She's like, if chemistry isgoing to be your thing, like
what do you want to do?
Like where do you want to go?
And I was like, okay, well,Pfizer is the number one
pharmaceutical company in theworld.
Can I work there?
And she's like if you put yourmind and heart into it, you
definitely can.
(18:08):
So my dad on the other side,he's like you have to put your a
hundred percent effort.
And I was like you know what,if that's, that's what you think
I can do.
I want to get there.
I want to work as hard as I canto get there.
Um, so, like I said, I thinkit's just a base of making both
of my parents proud as much aspossible.
Um, honestly, what's my drivingforce is, like I said, I have
goals and ideas of what I wantto do, but as long as, like, I
should prove to them, okay, I'mworking so hard.
Maybe I don't get there, that'sjust life, but I'm gonna try as
(18:28):
hard as I can, just to prove tothem like, yeah, I can do it,
You're right.
Like, thank you for trusting me, Thank you for, you know,
believing in that I could.
So, yeah, Nice.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
And when you finally here you go, we got yeah, yeah,
you're in no, um, yeah, youstill have to do regular
application process.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So I did early decision, um, so you basically
do the yeah, yeah, really earlydecision obviously.
So when you're a senior youcould apply on like early, early
action, early early action Ithink it's called um and then
you're able to get, if you knowyou're likely to get in, you get
a likely letter, um, this alsocould probably be different, you
(19:18):
know, for different colleges.
This is just ivs in general.
Um, so in, like October, Ithink I got a likely letter of
just saying you know you'relikely to get in, you're like
you're a high prospect, etc.
Etc.
Um, and then decision time Ithink is in January or February,
something like that, when youget your acceptance letter and
stuff.
But it's the same thing, sameapplication process as everybody
(19:39):
else still got to take the ACT,still got to do all that good
stuff, because with Ivy's theydon't give sports scholarship
necessarily, so a lot of thathad to come from.
Like, those scholarships that Igot all came from academic.
Yes, yes, I was likely to getin because I was committing for
soccer, so that you knew, youknow that's where I was going,
but I still had to, you know,pay for the school.
(20:00):
I still had to get in andthings like that.
And you know as much as I lovemy parents, I got to help them
out too, you know.
So again, that comes with the.
You know I want to focus onacademics, and if this is the
thing I want to do, let's see.
You know the best way to putmyself in the best spot to get
there.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So yeah, and um when, when you?
Um.
Sorry, I'm blanking out for asecond, but when, when you
finally got in, you know what Imean.
What was that like?
Did you um colleges?
I don't know what your schooldemographic was like in Florida
but I know, for me mydemographics were black and
Latino driven and then I got tocollege and I was like there's
(20:39):
nobody here that's like me.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
We woke up like 5% of the school.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
What was it like for you when you went to Yale and
did soccer kind of help buildsomething for you that made it
feel more like at home for you?
Yeah, that's interesting.
So like at home for you yeah,that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
So, like I mentioned before, I went to a Catholic
private school growing up umfrom all the way up until
college.
So I was very much in more oflike a white space growing up.
Whether you know outside of umanything else, it was mainly
just school was like.
I was the only black woman inmy middle school until, I think,
sixth grade and you know,obviously when you're a child
(21:17):
you don't see those things, youdon't notice it as much.
But when I got to high schoolit was a little bit more diverse
, especially with it being likeapplication process and things
like that, but still it wasstill heavy on white.
So going into college,especially with Ivy's, there's
(21:38):
bits and pieces that are kind ofthe same.
I think demographic-wise, mycollege and my high school are
pretty similar, but me beingable to be especially in sports
and being on teams and being ondifferent societies in college.
On teams and being on differentsocieties in college, I was
just immersed with so manydifferent kinds of people and
very, very interesting people.
When it comes to just the waythey grew up is very different
(22:00):
than mine, not necessarily in agood or bad way, just very
different experiences and I'mvery big on learning from
people's experiences because Ifeel like that could drive you
to being a different kind ofperson or, you know, just trying
something new and completely.
I met people start fromfreshman year of college.
I met someone that had donelike an internship and did
(22:22):
surgery on like a little babyand I'm like, where did you do
that?
And he's like, oh, I did it inTurkey.
And I was like I don't evenknow where Turkey is, like
what's going on.
So I was like I always say likeYale was such an amazing
experience because it just putme in such a space where I had
so many different kinds ofpeople from all over the world
and I talked to everybody tounderstand it.
(22:42):
So I think the biggest thingthat well one I had a high
school teammate and, honestly,childhood best friend that came
to Yale with me so she playedsoccer with me as well.
So that definitely helped kindof ground me of just like I'm
just a little girl from Florida,like sunrise Florida, like this
is, you know, I'm still just me.
So that definitely helped a lot.
(23:04):
But also I think I put a lot ofemphasis of just focusing on,
you know, the things that I cancontrol.
So I knew I wanted to dochemistry.
I knew I wanted to do chemistry,I knew I wanted to do well in
soccer.
So I just focused on those twothings.
And any like extracurricularstuff I was, you know, in a
painting class, I was on thedance team, etc.
(23:24):
Etc.
Those are just for fun, but aslong as I kind of focus and, you
know, have my goal from thestart and just try to get there
towards the end, that kind ofhelped just, you know, bring me
back to life of like, this is adream, but I see what I could do
, you know, while being in there.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
So I mean the transition from high school to
college.
From just about everyone islike oh my God, this is a lot
harder than I thought.
Yeah, and to balance that andsports on top of all that, while
you're used to the difficulty,challenges and you seem to have
always challenged yourself extra, like I know.
I wanted to do chemistry incollege as well and I went to a
(23:57):
very poor school.
We didn't have AP chemistry atall, but I did take two levels
of chemistry because we did havelike block scheduling so I
could take extra classes.
So it was like my junior yearand I'm in chem two and my
teacher walks by and nobody's inclass and she's like what are
you doing here?
I'm like waiting for you totake my class.
(24:18):
She's like you're not a senior.
I'm like, no, I'm a junior, andso the next two weeks I was
showing her photoshop becausethere was nothing for me to do
in my chemistry class.
But we didn't have.
Like you know, when I got tocollege I just got railroad by
chemistry, you know.
So the challenge is a littlebit too much for you, you know,
did you feel more overwhelmed?
And how do we balance that foryourself?
Speaker 2 (24:36):
um, honestly, I, I, I didn't feel that overwhelmed,
more so because, like Imentioned before I, we were, as
kids, very structured, in asense of like every time there
was something that we were doing, um, like there was always a
purpose.
So I I didn't mention thisbefore, but I also danced for
like 18 years of my life.
So not only was I doing schooland soccer, I was also dancing.
(24:59):
So it was like get up early inthe morning, go to my class at
high school, come back, um, goto middle school, middle school
soccer practice, go to club orclub soccer, go to dance or no,
go to dance and then go to clubsoccer.
Come home, homework, food, goto sleep, like that was the day.
Basically more things thanhours in the day, honestly.
(25:20):
So going into college was just abit of the same right.
It was morning practice, runthe class, run to lab, go back
to practice, homework, study,essay, study, essay, whatever it
is, sleep, repeat the next day.
So, yes, it intensified 100% interms of like level of
(25:40):
difficulty, but it was stillkind of the same movement.
I guess.
To me at least, yale was one ofthose places where it always
felt like everybody was there tohelp each other out, which I
really, really appreciated.
I didn't feel that at otherplaces that I went to go visit
before I committed.
(26:01):
So that was a big thing for me.
You know, like I want us all tosucceed, that's everything I
got from.
So if I needed help withsomething, it was very, very
easy to approach the professorsor approach the TA or something
like that was very, very easy toapproach the professors or
approach the TA or somethinglike that.
So if you know, I was fallingbehind because I was writing my,
my lab report on the bus backfrom a game.
(26:21):
They are really understandingwith that Cause they knew we're,
you know, we're collegeathletes.
Sometimes it's just impossibleto you know, make a class or
make a lab because I have a gameor practice or something like
that, definitely challenging.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
But again, I don't think it changed too too much
for me because I was.
I've been doing it for way toolong.
I mean when I took chemistry.
I know it's a lot of classesfor one class in chemistry
You're doing like your threehour classes.
You're doing three hours of lab, you're doing two hours of
pre-lab and then you know, allthis extra stuff.
It's like 10 hours a week andyou're just all day.
Yeah, that's just the one classyou know.
So, yeah, I can imagine.
So all I'm picturing is youhave, like you know, in harry
(27:00):
potter, with little time, turnerlike going back in time and
getting all your classes.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah, basically because, like I said, I had the
lab as well, which is five hours.
It's or four hours depending onhow the lab goes, but it's
usually all afternoon.
So it was like that.
I had to hop on the bus to goto the field to practice right
after.
Or, like I said, we have gameson the weekend, so I have a lab
report that's due on Monday.
I'm writing my lab report onthe drive to the field, play my
(27:24):
game.
On the ride back.
People can go out and dowhatever they want, but I'm
sitting there in the libraryfinishing my lab report.
But again, like stuff like that, I was like this is this seems
right, this is what I had to dobefore.
So it all adds up for me.
And, like I said, I had thegoal in mind of I want to be a
chemist, like I want to do that,but I also, you know, want to
(27:46):
be possibly a professionalsoccer player.
So these are my main focus.
Everything else, you know, canbe for fun or I enjoy it.
I will be try to fit the timein to do it.
I did a painting class, I diddrawing to kind of ease the
struggle with other things, butagain, like I always was, just
like you know.
These are the things I want todo.
If this is a sacrifice I haveto make right now, because it is
(28:07):
, then you know I'm going tobenefit later on, so yeah, it's
a it's a great mindset to have.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
It's a it's a great mindset to have and it's a
difficult it's a.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
It's a great mindset to have with a difficult thing
to keep on track.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, Definitely had help alongthe way from family, friends,
Like it's.
It's a hard thing to kind ofkeep consistent with.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
No, and I think the consistency is the key.
I mean, I think that'ssomething I tell Eva, my
daughter, all the time.
When it comes to soccer is like, yeah, don't expect yourself to
get from here to here in oneday.
It's little incrementalincreases, you just got to keep
doing it.
You just got to keep doing it.
You know, yeah, I keep doing it.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Yeah, so well yeah, and that's what I tell the kids
too.
It's when, especially when wedo technical sessions, I'm like
it might seem tedious becausewe're doing, you know, touches,
this touches this entire week.
But trust me, from what youguys were doing last week to
what we're going to be doingnext week, it's going to pay off
a lot.
You might not see it right nowbecause it's small games you
know, each hour, each day, butwhen you think about it in a
(29:03):
full scheme of things, you'relike, oh, it was worth it, like
I'll do that again, honestly,because it feels so much better
in the end.
So gotta keep that mindset asmuch as you can, as hard as it
can be and so then you ended upbecoming uh captain of your team
your senior year.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
How was that?
Speaker 2 (29:20):
that was amazing, um.
I, like I said, I was blessedto have such great teammates
that I'm best friends with tillum this day.
But it was interesting becauseI had a lot of struggles through
college when it came toinjuries as well.
So my oh gosh, my sophomoreyear I broke my dislocated and
broke my ankle in our first gameof the season, so I was out for
(29:41):
the season, unfortunately, um.
So that was super, super tough.
My parents were there.
They saw the whole thing.
My brother was watching thegame online.
He saw the whole thing.
It was the best um.
And then, right before thesummer, before my senior year, I
tore my Achilles.
So, again out for the season.
So it came for it came to me tobe a captain that isn't on the
(30:04):
field for, you know, a wholeteam of girls, which was a
difficult thing, of course, froma perspective of, like I want
to play pro, want to do this,like this should be my year,
this should be like the bestyear that I can get.
Um.
But also I'm now the captainlike how am I going to captain a
team when I'm not even on thefield?
Um, so, looking back early,even when I was in the moment,
(30:25):
to be honest, I kind of satmyself down and I was like, okay
, this is the state of thesituation, like I'm not going
gonna stitch my Achilles backtogether, like how am I gonna
make this?
You know, make the most of this?
Um, and it I'm honestly, I goback and forth, but it is a
thankful moment of like, yes,that happened, but I learned so,
so much from just being, youknow, a leader off the field.
(30:46):
Um, I had to learn how to becaptain coach, like I had to
learn how to be that middlebridge between the players and
the coaches and try to delegatecertain things and, you know,
hear their problems, bring it tothe coach and try to find a
compromise.
Um, so all of those lessons.
You know, as unfortunate as aninjury is and I know a lot of
people, that happens to a lot ofpeople unfortunately um, like I
(31:09):
have to see the good in itbecause it's like I'm going to.
You know I can't cry every day,like I can't.
You know it's going to bring medown if I think about it the
other way.
So I'm like, okay, how can Imake this, you know, benefit
from this as much as possible?
So you know I had to go.
I did a lot of leadershipclasses.
I did, you know, a lot ofdifferent things to see as best
as I can how can I lead thisteam?
It was a different thing but,like I said, I'm grateful for it
(31:32):
and it was one of my favoriteseasons just because I had the
best class.
That helped you know, they werekind of captains All seven of
them were captains for me.
We kind of had we captained theteam together, which was a
really, really differentexperience than we've had the
past three years.
So things like that.
You know, I try to see at leastthe benefit out of those, those
(31:53):
kinds of things, because, youknow, wasn't our best season but
it's still pretty good seasonand I couldn't have done that
without any of the people thathelped me out as well, as you
know my coach and try to figureout you know how I can still,
you know, be involved as much aspossible.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
And so then you ended up going to get your master's.
And you were also playingsoccer at the same time, so this
was all in.
England.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah.
So you know the persistentperson that I am.
I was like I'm not going to goout on an injury.
Like that can't happen.
So, of course, you know,throughout that year I was doing
physical therapy.
They told me I usually Achillesis like an eight to you know,
eight months to a year recovery.
I was like I'm going to beseven months.
(32:39):
I think I'm going to work ashard as I can.
Um.
So throughout that whole seasonI was just working, working,
working.
I played with the team in thespring, um, I think my recovery
process was like the six toseven mark, um, seven, six to
seven month mark and played withthe team during the spring.
It was definitely hard, youknow, trying to get back into
the aggression and all thosekinds of things, but I use that
(33:02):
to be like okay, I capable ofcoming back from such a bad
injury to play again.
So did that, played with theJamaican team a bit, um, and
then I ended up saying, okay, Imight want to do my master's and
my PhD in chemistry.
Where's the best place where Icould do that as well as so play
?
Um, I have.
So my dad is from England uh,he was from.
(33:25):
He's from Crodon, england, sosouth, like out London area, so
I have family over there.
So I was like this is perfect.
They speak English, like thisis amazing.
Um, and, like I said, we're abig fan soccer family, so we're
Chelsea fans and I was likeLondon's perfect, like let me go
, let me go over there and um,go see a couple Premier League
games and all those kinds ofstuff.
(33:45):
So went over there.
I actually went a little bitnorth though.
I went University of Nottingham, um, I did my master's of
research.
So, strictly, lab work, youknow your typical nine to five,
basically what I do now, typicalnine to five kind of thing in
lab.
But I was like, okay, how can Iplay as well while I'm here?
So played with the school teamand also trained with Bristol
(34:06):
City, trained with Leicester,played against Austin Villa and
things like that for the women'sside.
So did all of those kinds ofthings, just because I was like
I'm not gonna let an injury takeme out, because my goal was to
be a professional soccer player,like I want to, I want to make
it, I want to um work as hard asI can to get there.
So I I did.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
I think I really, really wanted to, just walk up
to the like to a club and say,hey, I'm interested, or like,
how does it?
Speaker 2 (34:32):
no, yeah, so is there a link in for soccer, like
what's going on honestly, kindof being in the soccer world is
an interesting thing because itseems so big but it actually is
kind of small in some waysbecause everybody just knows
each other.
Um, and it just so happenedthat the one of the assistant
coach or uh, I believe it wasupenn university of pennsy of
Pennsylvania, who I playedagainst before and she seen me
(34:54):
play she happened to be one ofthe coaches for a London team
over in England and she was likeah, she was like oh, you're
coming, like this isthis is the team you can come
play with us, or things likethat.
And then the coach that was atthe time she didn't end up being
my coach, but before the so theschool that I went to that I
was playing with their team,she's currently, uh, the
(35:16):
national coach for NorthernIreland.
She was the assistant coach forChelsea women's team, uh, so
she also had a lot ofconnections.
So she was like, yeah, send mea highlight tape.
I sent her that.
I have like a soccer resume, um, I sent her that and she was
like, oh, yeah, come, come play,like you can come play with us,
um, and a couple tryouts hereand there and stuff like that.
So a lot of connections in someways.
(35:37):
But, like I said, it's thesoccer world is.
Everybody knows each other, um,so reach out to my coach, my
coach reached out to somebodyelse and then all of a sudden
I'm like on a team doingsomething else, uh, but yeah, so
.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
So what is one of the things that pops up a lot in
here?
Networking, networking isreally important.
Yeah, yeah, it's one of thethings that pops up a lot in
here Networking.
Networking is really importantyeah it's huge, it really really
is, and you kind of yada yada'dyour Jamaican team.
What was your experience withthat?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah, the Jamaican team was amazing.
So I played when I was youngerand I was playing against them
when I was on the US nationalteam.
When I was younger, younger,and I was playing against them
when I was on the U?
S national team.
Uh, when I was younger.
But as I got older I knew thatyou know my family's mainly
Jamaican, british, um, and Iwant to play for Jamaica, cause
I feel like that just felt moremeaningful for me.
(36:25):
Um, so when I uh one of thecoaches at the time, he again a
lot of connections, a lot oflittle things at the time.
He again a lot of connections,a lot of little things.
He was the head coach of a teamin Orlando and we played
against his team so many timeswe've beaten, we've lost.
It's just they were one of ourrivals growing up so he already
knew who I was as a player.
(36:47):
So when I mentioned, I think myfather mentioned to him that I
wanted to change over and playfor the Jamaican team.
He ended up being the head coachfor the Jamaican team like a
year or two after he called meup while I was at college and
stuff like that.
So I played with them for acouple of qualifying games.
I couldn't go to the last onebecause, like I mentioned, I
tore my Achilles, so that lastone I couldn't go to and that's
(37:16):
also part of the reason why Iworked so hard to get back um
into uh playing after myAchilles, cause that summer it
was the world cup Um.
So I went to South Africa withthe team, played with them there
.
Um I unfortunately couldn'tplay in the actual world cup
because of the Achilles.
I wasn't well um cleared toplay.
But again, even doing thequalifying match, even doing all
of those things and trainingwith the team, was more than
enough um experience and meetingsuch lovely people.
(37:39):
So very, very grateful for thatthat's, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Um, and so, going back to grad school, you're
doing your lab, you're doingthis stuff and then I guess you
graduate is do you decide tocome back to connecticut or?
Speaker 2 (37:53):
yeah, so that was around when COVID started.
So there was a lot of thingsshutting down.
I couldn't go in lab anymoreand I was applying to PhD
programs.
But I also reached back out tomy old lab head at Pfizer when I
did the internship and I wasjust wondering if there was any
jobs.
I don't know, maybe somethingpops up, cause I knew from that
(38:16):
experience I wanted to come,either come back to Pfizer or go
into pharmaceuticals in general.
So he mentioned there's acouple open positions.
You know, if you apply, justlet me know.
And I applied for that and Ialso applied for PhD programs.
And even though I did get intoPhD programs, especially over in
the UK, and I was thinkingabout staying so I could play a
bit more, um, I knew that Imissed a lot of my family, my
(38:39):
mom, my brother, um, and beingcloser to them met a lot,
especially during that such ahard time for everybody.
Um, so chose to.
I fortunately got the job atPfizer and just moved back over
um cold state of connecticut, um, but you know it was still part
of home to me because I went toschool here, so I still knew
(39:01):
the area.
I still had a lot of friendshere.
I still had, you know, thingsthat I knew that I could do
around here, um and again acouple connections of getting me
to ct, rush to play and, um,coach there and get to know the
team.
It still connected me to soccereven to play and coach there
and get to know the team.
It still connected me to soccer, even though I chose to not
play professionally anymore.
I knew I wanted to do something.
So I was like, okay, if I workat Pfizer, that's amazing.
(39:25):
I had my goal of beingprofessional.
I did that.
So now let's, maybe this is thetime for me to make my goal of
being a professional chemist tosome extent.
So, you know, didn't want tolose the soccer side.
So you know, that's where thecoaching comes in.
But this is, you know, I'm onthe path of, you know, getting
to that other goal that I alsoset for myself when I was
younger.
So that kind of, I think,geared me to making that big
(39:48):
decision of coming back over.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Yeah, and when it comes to being like a scientist
and a chemist, you know, I thinkit's kind of a foggy world for
most people.
They don't know like, yeah, howdo you become a scientist, how
do you become like, what doesthat mean?
Speaker 2 (40:05):
yeah, what does that mean no, yeah, I am chemistry, I
love chemistry, I'm a bigperson that does puzzles.
I I like jigsaw, like any kindof crossword, something that you
can solve, basically.
And chemistry is an interestingthing where you're presented,
you know a structure that youhave to figure out how to make.
(40:26):
You know a lot of these thingsare very, very new and you know
first in class is what we callit.
So it was one of those thingswhere, like this is something I
can be very creative and it'svery difficult.
It's not for everybody.
You definitely have to have thementality of being very
persistent because 99% of thetime your reactions don't work
(40:49):
and that's a very stressful,very hard thing to kind of just
like ingest every day.
But when you think about thebig picture of like okay, if
this thing actually works and,you know, goes through the
clinicals and becomes a drug ina couple of years, that's
amazing, like that's going toaffect a lot of people.
So, again, that you know endgoal, that outcome is what I
usually gets me out through theday.
(41:09):
Honestly, that's my day to day.
But thinking about, you know,becoming a chemist, being coming
a scientist you know scientistsis a very broad thing, cause
you could be a scientist andlike a lot of different things,
um, but being a chemist ingeneral it's.
You know, like I mentioned, itis difficult, but I always think
it's very fun Cause, like Imentioned, I'm a puzzle person.
(41:29):
I like to solve problems, I liketo, you know, try to talk and
figure it out as best as I can.
And, like I said, my chemistryteacher in high school is what
brought me here.
She made chemistry so so fun.
She connected it to our dailything.
She said you know, you likecooking, it's basically cooking
(41:50):
to some extent.
So, thinking about how joyousshe was, I was like, okay, maybe
I can actually do that.
So, having that from theremoving into college, doing it
all four years, trying to getconnections there and now doing
it Pfizer, it's like it's, it'samazing.
I love my job.
I kind of make my own scheduleto some extent, where you know I
(42:10):
still have to watch my gamesand Premier League and all that
good stuff, champions League.
So you know I plan my meetingsand I'm in lab the most part.
So I am on my feet, I work withmy hands.
You know, your typical ifpeople think about like
chemistry, you're in your labcoat, you have your goggles, you
have your gloves, all of thosekinds of things.
But it is a great community andgreat, great people that I work
(42:33):
with, so very happy to be there.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
And is it still something you're thinking about
for PhD?
Speaker 2 (42:40):
I am.
It still trickles in the back ofmy mind, but it's interesting
because I have this battlebetween, you know, staying where
I am and kind of just learningthrough experience versus a PhD.
I think there's very bigbenefits to both through
experience versus a PhD.
I think there's very bigbenefits to both.
But currently I've beenlearning so much over the past
three, four years that I've beenwith the company Just, you know
(43:03):
, being moved to differentprojects, working on different
things and working withdifferent people where, like you
don't get that as often with aPhD, where you're very highly
focused on one thing.
So I've been enjoying this sofar.
I always say that, like you know, I'm probably at the point
where I might not go back, butagain, like I always thrive to
be the best that I can be, so ifI, you know, next year, in a
(43:26):
couple months, I feel like it'sprobably the best thing for me,
that can kind of move me up alittle bit faster or get to
where I want to be, then I'll gofor it.
But currently I'm very happy of, you know, learning from all
just inaction on the job kind ofthing.
So it's been nice.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Nice, I mean um.
Like you said, people thinkscientists they don't really
have an idea.
So it's nice to kind of getkind of idea of what the hell
the scientists do.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Yeah, it's very much like you expect of like a little
beaker.
You know, sometimes you have alittle color change.
You're basically mixingtogether to try to make
something else.
Yeah, it's, trust me, it's very, very complicated, but on a
grand scheme of things, it'sit's.
It's very simple.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
And you?
You started working duringCOVID.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
You said Yep, so right in 2020, I believe, is
when?
When did I graduate, ohgoodness?
So I started working at likemiddle to end of 2020.
So right in the midst of COVID,basically.
So that was a very challenging,challenging time because, as I
mentioned, I'm in lab for themost part, so I'm in person, I
(44:38):
go in office all the time.
So it was a lot of restrictionswhen it comes to how many
people who's qualified to beonsite.
So we're not risking anythingsix feet apart, which is also
difficult because I work rightnext to somebody.
Like our lab hoods are rightnext to each other, but I had to
be moved on the other side.
There's a lot of there's a lotof safety reasons why?
(44:59):
Because I can't be in lab bymyself.
Just in case something happens,someone has to be there, but
six feet apart.
There was a lot.
It was.
It was very, very difficult andvery stressful time for many
reasons, but I mean it's alreadya very restrictive job.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Like you, have very set rules that I need to do this
a certain way, and anyadditional variables just
complicate things.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Complicates it completely Exactly.
So it was stress already packedon more stress that I was there
already.
So it was definitely, um, aninteresting time.
Thankfully we're in a lotbetter time now, um, but yeah,
like I I'm.
It's interesting because I alsocan compare it to when I was an
intern, where there was, youknow, bustling of people all
(45:46):
over the place.
It was very lively, you know.
We had events, we hadinterviews, we had a bunch of
stuff going on, whereas when Istarted actually on the job, it
was silent.
There was like six people in mylittle area.
So, yeah, it was definitely aninteresting situation, but,
again, grateful to be able tostart and have an impact on that
(46:06):
whole pandemic.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
So yeah, what kind of things were you working on?
Was it even co-related, or wasthere other things that you were
working?
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Yeah, so I didn't work on like because at that
point, so a lot of the timesit's kind of hard to explain but
the drug process is very long.
So it usually takes like fiveto 10 years for anything to come
out.
So for Pfizer to be able to getthat out super, super quickly
was a lot like it was very, veryhard to do.
A lot of people had to beinvolved.
So I was involved to like someextent when it came to more like
(46:39):
the analytical side of things,but like it was already moving
through the process where I am.
So the things that I usuallywork on, like what I'm working
on now, is very early stage.
So we make very small amountsof compounds and things like
that to be tested and like onrats and things like that.
So it's very more so smallscale and then when things come
(47:01):
back, data comes back very good.
Then it can go larger scale andit goes into the clinic, et
cetera, et cetera.
So there's a lot of differentplaces in hand.
So that's why I said there's alot of people involved, um, but
I'm more on like the early stageof trying to discover stuff.
So it's a bit harder because,like I said, a lot of the times
it's new space, um, and you'rekind of, you know, piecing
(47:22):
things together to make it makesense, um.
But yeah, it was interestingbecause the people around me,
since they were working therebefore, were highly involved
with it, so I was just watchingthem and seeing what's going on
and seeing how the process goes.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
But yeah, Nice, and so now you're doing that and
you're also coaching.
You know what impact hascoaching had on your life on
your life.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
Oh, coaching has been amazing.
That guy I at first, when Ifirst started coaching, I was
coaching.
Well, to be honest, I was firststarting coaching in Florida,
um, with like a U11 team of theold club team that I used to
play for and I was just in andout.
I was more doing training.
Um, because me, growing uptraining with my dad, my dad was
my coach for when I was younger, until I moved to the girls
team and he trained my brotherand I throughout our entire life
(48:13):
.
Basically so, being a coach atfirst I was like, okay, let me
just do training and kind of getto know the girls and see how
the club team is, etc.
Etc.
And then, you know, someonereached out and was like why
don't you coach the team?
Like I feel like you'd bereally good at this?
Um, it was like, okay, I'll tryit out.
I did older girls just because,again, you know, I just came out
(48:35):
of playing professionally, Ican get them to give some advice
to that aspect.
But what drew me to be more soa coach for like the younger
girls was I was so, so excitedto go to practice when I was
younger.
I loved going to practice Of togo to practice.
When I was younger I lovedgoing to practice.
Of course you get to hang outwith your friends and things
(48:55):
like that.
But just learning something new, trying, you know, new skills
at practice Um, I was a defender, so I was like maybe I could
score today.
Things like that that you knowyou don't usually do.
Um, I just I was like, okay, mybrother taught me this, how can
I bring this into my game?
Things like that.
I I wanted to be able toprovide that excitement for
girls that when I was that young, like that age, so doing it,
like with your daughter and theteam that I have now, it's been
(49:16):
so, so rewarding and super fun.
Because my biggest thing as acoach is, you know, skill can
always be taught.
You can learn that.
You're going to learn thatthroughout your entire soccer
career, basically.
But you know the love for thegame is a very hard thing to
achieve.
So you know I'm going to be ahard coach.
I'm going to make sure you knowthey're learning and they're
I'm teaching them things, but Ialso want them to love it.
(49:38):
I want them to enjoy practiceand the games.
It's not necessarily aboutwinning and losing Everybody
loves winning.
But as long as they understandthe game, as long as they, you
know, think they played wellthat day and they know why, like
things went wrong, etc, etc.
That's gonna go a long way andespecially when they get older,
that's gonna play a big part intheir soccer career.
So that's been one of myfavorite things, just to see how
(49:59):
the development goes yeah, no,and it's been great.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
I mean from a parent's side of point of view,
like when it's funny because Ihad eva come there.
She had only been playing likea year of soccer at that point
when she tried out for you guyslike a little over a year, um,
and I kind of did it becausesome of the other girls were
doing it and they were like ohyeah, and I'm like, and I just
kept telling her you might notmake it.
(50:23):
So just accept that you mightnot make it, but I think it'd be
good to practice going totrials yeah, it's like a new
learning experience.
She's so nervous.
Yeah, she's like okay and shejust went and just played and
you know, then we got the letterin and I was like Anita, I
don't think we can buy a carright now because we're gonna
have to pay soccer, you knowwe're gonna have to hold off a
bit on buying a new car.
(50:45):
We got a new bill that we'regonna do and, yeah, we've been
with you for like half a year alittle over half a year and the
progress has been tremendous,like even when we go back to rec
you know, the town soccer the,the other coaches who have seen
here like oh my god, she wentfrom barely able to move forward
to like just control stuff andI'm just like, yeah, and I still
(51:07):
think she has stuff to improveon.
So it's just amazing.
So you know, you know I Ireally appreciate all the work
you put into it and I seefirsthand experience.
You know how much she's grownfrom it, and like even just her
head swivel, just like being onthe field where she can know,
Ooh, I got to come.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
Yeah, look at her.
No, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
So, yeah, usually around you know, near the end,
when we start talking, you know,I always like to come back and
ask you know, if you could goback and talk to a younger
version of yourself.
What's something you'd tellyourself?
What advice would you giveyourself?
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Oh, I would say such a good question.
I think you know as persistent,as, like I claim to be, or I
hope to be, I think still like,I would love to tell myself to
keep going and keep pushing.
There is going to be adifficult path, like I went
through a lot of stuff.
I lost my father in the midstof college time.
(52:06):
There's, there's just a lot ofthings that are going to happen,
but you have to keep going.
Um, there's always, you know,the light at the end of the
tunnel, kind of thing.
Um, and like you know, life isgoing to be hard and most of the
time, as much as you can plan,it's probably not going to go
the way you think it's going togo, um, but it's going to go the
way it's supposed to.
(52:27):
So it, you know it's, it's hard, but you got to keep pushing.
You just got to keep going.
I told myself that today.
I want to tell myself thatbefore and, you know, hopefully
in the future, keep tellingmyself that.
Speaker 1 (52:37):
So yeah, awesome, yeah, and I love the way you
said it.
It's not going to go the wayyou expect, but it's going to go
the way it's supposed to Me,and my wife kind of do that all
the time, like you know, if it'smeant to me, it's meant to be.
Let's just yeah leave it ingod's hand and keep moving
forward.
You know so exactly um, and so,ultimately, you know, you know
how do you say success inspanglish oh, that's a good one
(53:00):
too.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
Um, no, yeah, I, that's such a good question.
I think it's just a matter of,like I mentioned before, success
to me is just making my parentsproud, making my family proud
and, honestly, making myselfproud, um, thinking about how
much I've gone through and whatI, my little self, planned to be
and I was able to at leastaccomplish it.
(53:22):
Not necessarily in the way likeyou said, like not in the way
that I saw it, not nearly theway I saw it.
They think I was going to go,you know, to Yale specifically.
I didn't know I was going to go.
You know, take Yalespecifically.
I didn't know I was going to doPfizer and all that stuff.
But you know, I'm making myselfproud and making my family
proud, especially my parents andmy older brother.
Like that's that's success tome.
Like I did it, that's that'sall I wanted to do and hopefully
(53:45):
I could get there.
So, yeah, nice, and.
I guess my last question is whatis your real opinion of Harvard
?
So they're fine, I guess no, no, I have some friends that went
to Harvard too.
They're, they're fine.
But you know, bulldogs isreally like the way to go.
Speaker 1 (54:06):
I went to Boston University, so I have a lot of
friends from Harvard as well, soI always know oh, it's Harvard
Yale, it's Harvard Yale.
They go okay.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
Yeah, it's funny because it's like, oh, it's the
rivalry.
But personally we always arefine, everyone's friends, we're
all good.
But no, it's all about Yale,it's all about the Bulldogs.
I'm through and through.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
Yale through Yelly till I die.
So blue and white only Awesome.
Well, uh, Brittany, thank youso much for taking the time and
sharing your story.
Uh, you know you, you've gonethrough so much and you're a
great motivation to you, knowthe girls on your field, and so
I really appreciate you takingthe time to come out here and
talk to me.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
So, thank you so much .
Oh my gosh, no, yeah, thank youfor having me.
This was great.
I love this Awesome.
Yeah, well, thank you so much.
Oh my gosh, yeah, thank you forhaving me.
This was great.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
I love this, awesome.
Yeah, well, thank you so muchand obviously, for everyone else
listening, thank you so muchfor tuning in, as always.
I hope you'll join me againnext time as we continue to
learn how to say success inSpanish.
(55:15):
Thank you.
This is Raul Lopez, and you're listening to.
How Do you Save Success inSpanglish?
The path to success isn't easyFor minorities and people of
color.
Many attempt this journey withlittle to no guidance.
Join me as I sit down withindividuals who share their
stories of perseverance so thattogether, we can learn how to
save success in Spanglish.
What's good, mi gente?
(00:38):
Welcome back.
It's your boy, Raul.
Thank you for joining me hereon how to Say Success in
Spanglish.
Today I have a very specialguest, Brittany Simpson.
Brittany, how's it going?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Good, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Good, good, good.
Brittany holds a place dear tomy heart because she coaches my
daughter in soccer, but she alsohas an amazing story.
So just to kind of give alittle intro on Brittany,
brittany Simpson was born andraised in Sunrise, florida.
She's been playing soccer sincethe age of three and also
attended an academic andathletic high school where she
(01:07):
played varsity all four years.
As well as being part ofvarious honor societies, she
committed to the Yale's D1soccer program after her
sophomore year.
During college, she played onthe Yale's women's soccer team
for all four years whilemajoring in chemistry A captain
her senior year.
She continued to play aftergraduating in England for over
two years.
She also played on the youthnational teams and finally with
(01:30):
the Jamaican national first teamqualifying for the 2019 Women's
World Cup.
Currently, she coaches girls2013 youth soccer, which
includes my daughter, as well asthe United Women's Soccer Team
as well.
Women's United the UnitedWomen's Soccer Team as well.
When not doing soccer, she'sjust a senior scientist at
Pfizer.
So how's it going, brittany?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Not too bad.
Thanks for having me Very, veryexcited.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, thank you so much for taking the time.
I mean from the moment we thisis my first year doing this
level of soccer with my daughter.
She's fairly new to soccer.
She's only been playing for acouple of years and when we
found out you had a coach, I waslike, oh my God, this is such
an amazing person.
I'm glad that my daughter hasthis person as a role model, so
thank you for helping her outwith everything.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Oh, of course she's lovely.
I love that team so much.
They're always super excited toshow up for practices games.
They super excited to show upfor practices games.
They, they want more practices.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Things like that, I just love to see, especially at
a young age.
So I'm excited.
Well, I guess, to start off,you know, tell me a little about
yourself.
You know who is?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
uh, brittany simpson sure, yeah, thanks so much for
the great intro as well.
That was great, um.
But yeah, just like you heard,um, I'm born and raised in
sunrise, florida.
Um lived there for a majorityof my life.
I have one older brother, so weboth played soccer from
starting at age three.
I actually played on a boysteam until I turned around 10 or
(02:52):
11.
Then I switched over to a girlsteam.
I always like to joke around andsay that I was born on a soccer
field because my dad alsoplayed soccer as well as
professionally.
So my parents, thankfully andI'm very blessed to say that,
like, I played every sport justto try out see what I was good
at.
Um, but you know, secretly, wealways knew it was going to
(03:12):
probably be soccer.
But my, if I wasn't, you know,at school or at my own games, I
was at my brother's games, um,and if we didn't have either of
those, I'm at the field, uh,practicing with my brother and
my dad.
So, um, soccer was definitely abig, you know, part of my life,
especially being Jamaican aswell.
A lot of my cousins, my uncles,all of them played soccer as
well, so it's all around that.
(03:34):
But the other side of me, likeyou heard, I'm a scientist at
Pfizer, so my mom was very bigon academics.
So they're like okay, you canplay soccer, that's great, but
you know you also have to excelin the in the classroom.
So growing up I was at a privateCatholic school my entire life
through college and I did veryhard, rigorous academics as well
(03:56):
, as you know, sports.
So majored in chemistry camestraight from freshman year of
college.
Within high school I knew Iwanted to do chemistry from, I
think, sophomore year I had areally really great chemistry
teacher.
She was very energetic, shejust made chemistry really
really fun.
So that kind of sparked my ideaof, okay, I'm pretty good at
(04:16):
this, maybe this could have goneto work out what kind of you
know, profession I can get outof this.
So that kind of got me thinkinggoing into college of like,
okay, what kind of specific kindof chemistry I want to do and
how do I get to where I want tobe?
So did that through college.
After my sophomore year of highschool actually, I committed to
(04:36):
Yale for soccer.
It was seems kind of early andit is early Making that decision
definitely came from, you know,my older brother who played
soccer at Penn State and myparents were, you know, huge,
huge help with that.
I was looking at differentschools.
You know different levels ofsoccer, but I also knew I wanted
to do really well in academics.
(04:57):
So why not do that in an IB?
You know, do D1 while alsodoing that?
Not the easiest task to do, butlet's see if I could try.
You know, um, and that was myparents biggest thing.
They're like, always aim highand you know see where you land
from there.
Um, they always wanted the bestfor us so they sacrificed a lot
for us to go um, do what weneeded to do.
(05:17):
So I committed there um, endedup playing all four years,
captained my last year at Yalewhich was amazing, love that
team Um, and majored inchemistry.
So with that I actually had aninternship at Pfizer Um and that
kind of directed me of okay, Iknow I want to do
pharmaceuticals, how do I getthere?
(05:38):
You know what things that Ineed to do.
Then I took that internship,learned a lot, came back to
school, learned a lot aboutresearch and you know things I
can kind of excel in and bettermy own skills.
And after that I knew I wantedto do post-school like work,
graduate work, whether it's PhD,master's, et cetera, et cetera.
So I have that one side of, youknow, being so driven in
(06:00):
chemistry and wanted to be thebest at that, but I also really
soccer, you know.
So I'm gonna continue.
Both people always ask me, likeyou know, that's hard, how do
you do that, especially at anivy, and chemistry alone is like
the craziest thing and it is.
I take that.
But you know, like I said, whenI was in middle school, I was
always doing two things I wasalways doing school and I was
(06:20):
always doing sports, um, and Idid that through high school and
did that through college.
So, even though, yes, the levelintensifies, it's still.
It was still kind of the samething for me.
I always knew that, like, thisis just my life.
I thought this was normal.
You know.
I didn't compare it to anythingelse, this is just what I knew.
I was very structured.
You know, I had this 10 minutesto eat my dinner and then I had
(06:41):
to do my homework and then Ihad practice.
Or you to eat my dinner, andthen I had to do my homework and
then I had practice, or youknow things like that.
It just seemed very normal tome and, like I said, I think
that started from young age withmy parents just being like okay
, if this is what you want to do, let's do it Well, like let's,
you know, put you in the bestspot, work very, very hard to
get you to you know where youwant to be.
So did all of that played whileI was getting my master's over
(07:03):
in England Again, kind of crazy,how did I think about it.
And then, like you mentioned, Iplayed on youth teams, youth
national teams, played with theJamaican team and ended up
getting a job at Pfizer and hardto turn that down.
So, of course, moved back overand now I'm a scientist there,
but still have the love forsoccer, of course.
(07:24):
So, even though I'm not playingprofessionally anymore, I
wanted to be involved as much aspossible.
So, you know, teaching yourdaughter and the rest of the
girls on the team is the mostfun thing for me, honestly, and
teaching the college girls whenthey come back out of college
during the summer.
Again, you know, different,different kind of level,
different kind of spot for me,whether being, you know, a
(07:47):
player versus a coach now, uh,but definitely very, very
fulfilling.
So very, very happy about thatnice.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It's a lot to be like to accomplish and it's I can't
imagine that drill.
I mean, when I was growing upas a kid, my dad was very strict
for college.
College was everything.
The only reason he let me playsports.
Uh well, he was a soccer guytoo.
So but I won't go into like whyI stopped playing soccer.
You know, um, I sat on thebench a lot because I was a big
(08:15):
chubby guy, so so it drew meaway from soccer.
I didn't, I didn't like playingsoccer because nobody ever let
me play.
So, um, eventually you know,when I get to high school, you
know we're playing sports and mydad's like you know everything
I had to do was for college, soI'm going to play football
because that's going to help me,could help me for college and
stuff like that.
So that balance was thatsomething you learned early on
(08:36):
because your parents wereguiding you on all that stuff?
Or in like, did they say youcould only play soccer after you
finish your homework?
You know you could only or did.
Did you have limits on thatfrom your parents?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
You know, I don't think we had particular limits.
I'm like you know you have todo this before this or you know
you have this time to do this.
I think it's because I alwaysjoke that my mom was very heavy
on academics and my dad washeavy on soccer, so I just had
one full percent on the other,100% on the other.
But it we had this verystructured schedule and a sense
(09:11):
of like you know, I have this 30minute block.
This is the only time I have todo my homework.
It's gonna get done in this 30minute block, so I just don't
have the time to do any otherthings.
And it's interesting becauseit's nothing I never, you know
it's not like oh, you got to godo your homework.
Like I was always excited to domy homework, like I just wanted
to go and do it, you know, andit was like okay, I can do this.
(09:34):
I know I have practice later,so I don't need to, you know,
sacrifice this because I want todo something else, like I could
just get it done and then moveon to the next thing.
And I, like I said, I don'tthink that was brought on more
so from my parents.
I want to say that's more sofrom my older brother.
He was, I mean, he is one ofthe best role models I have in
(09:55):
my life.
We're four years apart butwe're best friends.
Like that's my number one bestfriend, and he was very, very
good at keeping things in orderand, you know, placing where his
academics and where his sportswill be.
So I just kind of followed hislead of like okay, he's doing
his homework, this time I'mgonna do it with him and then we
can go outside and play somesoccer before our practices.
(10:16):
So I think a lot of that justkind of came from following what
my brother did.
He seemed to go well for him,so I was like okay, I'll do what
he's doing and see how thatgoes.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
So you said you went to an athletic academic school.
Is that like a special type ofschool or something you had to
apply to, or does it just happento be the school you went to
was really athletic.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, it was.
So I went to St Thomas Aquinasin Fort Lauderdale, florida, and
it's very heavy on well,technically, it's very heavy on
like football for guys, but it'sjust very, very good at sports
in general.
So it's an application process.
There's no scholarships when itcomes to sports, necessarily,
but there's a lot of academicscholarships.
So if you test well going inversus you know your grades from
(11:02):
middle school and things likethat, then you can get in and
excel through that.
But St Thomas is a veryinteresting place.
I love it with all my heart.
It's a Catholic private schoolas well, so that also kind of
helped those because I gotintroduced to so many.
You know different kinds ofpeople.
You know a lot of the kids thatcame out of there, especially,
(11:24):
like I said, for football.
They now play in the NFL.
Or you know a lot of myteammates that I played club
soccer with, also once my highschool.
So it was like I see them playhigh school soccer with them,
but I also play club soccer withthem.
So you know the team was verygood.
I think we won, we won, we wonStates all four years of my high
school, I believe and then onenational championship somewhere
(11:45):
in the middle, I think,sophomore, junior year.
So then you know, I still gotcompetitive soccer through that,
while you know Spanish HonorSociety, national Honor Society,
those kinds of things, becauseI needed to be in the AP class
in order to get into an Ivyschool, you know.
So it was just a very I wasvery blessed to be in that space
, to be able to do all of thosethings again at the same time.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, so you said you committed to Yale in your
sophomore year, and does thatmean that there was a certain
set of requirements that youneeded to maintain to continue
and go to Yale, or what?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
was that like Yep, yeah, so for you to be able to
commit to colleges that early,it's like a verbal commitment of
just like, okay, we both agreethat you know when it's time
which is, I think, senior yearyou do your signing day where
you know I'm committed to youand you're committed to me, kind
of thing.
But, like you said, there isrequirements, so you still have
to get your grades.
You got to keep your grades up.
(12:41):
You got to test.
Well, I took the ACTs at thattime, so you had a certain score
, you had the bank, all thatstuff.
Still, it's like a conditionaloffer in some senses.
I couldn't get a C, you knowthings like that.
It was just like this yes,we're committed to each other,
but you still got to kind of getyourself together, make sure
(13:01):
everything's on track.
You can't get in trouble whileyou know all those kinds of
things.
So it that kind of stuff didn'tscare me, especially committing
so early, because it was likeI'm gonna get in trouble with my
parents if I, you know, get a cor like whatever, you're the
least of my worries.
I was like this is fine, it'slike, don't worry about it.
Um, so, yeah, it's.
(13:22):
It's crazy because I feel likeit gets earlier and earlier for
people to commit, but again,it's a verbal commitment, so
things can change, Coaches canchange.
You know people that you talkto might not be there when
you're actually going there.
There's a lot of ifs and butswhen it comes to committing that
early, but you know, I was, Iwas very I would say I was
pretty easy with picking theschool that I wanted to go to,
because I had very specificthings I wanted.
(13:44):
I wanted a good school foracademics.
I wanted a good school forsoccer.
I knew I didn't want to stay inFlorida, more so because I can
always come home and see myfamily, and that was about it.
Like that was honestly, prettymuch it.
So it was just, you know,picking that and getting the
best offer I could was, you know, help out my parents as best as
I can.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
You know, that's all I wanted to do, and so what
impact did like club soccerversus high school sports, like
help in getting you in front ofsomeone from Yale.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, so I will say that, when it comes to
committing for soccer wise, thatcame more so from club soccer
than high school.
Of course, high school soccerwas so great like I said, we won
state champs and things likethat but I was seen throughout
for club um, I was on a veryinteresting club team where it
was just us as the um, the teamfor the entire club.
(14:38):
So, um, I was on this teamcalled Magic Jacks, uh, when I
was younger, and it was run bythis man called Dan Borslow, one
of the best people I've met inmy entire life, and he basically
built this team of justexcellent players from all
across the world.
Honestly, like we had a coupleof players that lived in
(15:00):
California that played with us.
We played with this womanthat's her.
Her name's Bunny.
She's one of the best playerson the Jamaica national team.
She played on my club team withus.
She came from Jamaica and cameand played.
We had two players from Sweden.
So it was just this hodgepodgeof a team of just amazing
players, but it helped in asense of I was seen all over the
(15:21):
world when it comes to, youknow, college coaches, national
team coaches, because we justplayed in every tournament there
was possible, honestly, and youknow, of course, when you're
winning tournaments, you'rewinning games, you're going to
be pulling a lot of you knowtrainers and things like coaches
and stuff like that to come seeyou.
So that helped me a lot when itcame to just being seen in the
soccer world.
(15:42):
But for academics wise, like Imentioned before, being in a
place where you know very strictprivate school, you're able to
do AP classes.
You're able to.
I did a couple like I did highschool classes when I was in
middle school because my brotherwas going there so I could go
there in the morning with himand then go back to my middle
school after.
(16:02):
So I was doing my algebra andcalculus class while I was in
middle school beforehand andstuff like that.
So it was just like chaotic, alittle bit chaotic, but you know
, again, I did those things likeI always wanted to do those
things.
So I was like I want to be, youknow, at the best school.
I know I have to work being aminority, like a black woman, I
know I have to work two times ashard just to be seen, whether
(16:24):
it's an academic, sports orwhatever it has to be.
So putting myself in thosequote unquote difficult
situations was okay with me,because I was like, okay, if
this is going to help me in thefuture, I'll do it Like I'll
work hard.
That's not.
That's not going to turn meaway.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
So what was kind of like your ultimate motivator?
Was it the hopes of becoming?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
no-transcript.
It ultimately comes down tolike, if I had those, you know,
as a young girl you always wantto be the best.
You want to be a professionalsoccer player.
You know, I looked up to AbbyWombat and like I was like I
want to play with her, um, andthings like that.
So it's interesting, Cause I Ipersonally don't think those
(17:22):
were like my driving force.
I honestly think I just alwayswanted to make my parents proud,
because they always say thatyou know, you're really good at
this.
Like if you just kind of focuson this, you'll be great.
So I'm like you know what?
You're right, Let me focus onthis and prove to them that like
, yes, I can do this.
I said my mom was very high inacademic.
(17:43):
She's like, if chemistry isgoing to be your thing, like
what do you want to do?
Like where do you want to go?
And I was like, okay, well,Pfizer is the number one
pharmaceutical company in theworld.
Can I work there?
And she's like if you put yourmind and heart into it, you
definitely can.
(18:08):
So my dad on the other side,he's like you have to put your a
hundred percent effort.
And I was like you know what,if that's, that's what you think
I can do.
I want to get there.
I want to work as hard as I canto get there.
Um, so, like I said, I thinkit's just a base of making both
of my parents proud as much aspossible.
Um, honestly, what's my drivingforce is, like I said, I have
goals and ideas of what I wantto do, but as long as, like, I
should prove to them, okay, I'mworking so hard.
Maybe I don't get there, that'sjust life, but I'm gonna try as
(18:28):
hard as I can, just to prove tothem like, yeah, I can do it,
You're right.
Like, thank you for trusting me, Thank you for, you know,
believing in that I could.
So, yeah, Nice.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
And when you finally here you go, we got yeah, yeah,
you're in no, um, yeah, youstill have to do regular
application process.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So I did early decision, um, so you basically
do the yeah, yeah, really earlydecision obviously.
So when you're a senior youcould apply on like early, early
action, early early action Ithink it's called um and then
you're able to get, if you knowyou're likely to get in, you get
a likely letter, um, this alsocould probably be different, you
(19:18):
know, for different colleges.
This is just ivs in general.
Um, so in, like October, Ithink I got a likely letter of
just saying you know you'relikely to get in, you're like
you're a high prospect, etc.
Etc.
Um, and then decision time Ithink is in January or February,
something like that, when youget your acceptance letter and
stuff.
But it's the same thing, sameapplication process as everybody
(19:39):
else still got to take the ACT,still got to do all that good
stuff, because with Ivy's theydon't give sports scholarship
necessarily, so a lot of thathad to come from.
Like, those scholarships that Igot all came from academic.
Yes, yes, I was likely to getin because I was committing for
soccer, so that you knew, youknow that's where I was going,
but I still had to, you know,pay for the school.
(20:00):
I still had to get in andthings like that.
And you know as much as I lovemy parents, I got to help them
out too, you know.
So again, that comes with the.
You know I want to focus onacademics, and if this is the
thing I want to do, let's see.
You know the best way to putmyself in the best spot to get
there.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So yeah, and um when, when you?
Um.
Sorry, I'm blanking out for asecond, but when, when you
finally got in, you know what Imean.
What was that like?
Did you um colleges?
I don't know what your schooldemographic was like in Florida
but I know, for me mydemographics were black and
Latino driven and then I got tocollege and I was like there's
(20:39):
nobody here that's like me.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
We woke up like 5% of the school.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
What was it like for you when you went to Yale and
did soccer kind of help buildsomething for you that made it
feel more like at home for you?
Yeah, that's interesting.
So like at home for you yeah,that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
So, like I mentioned before, I went to a Catholic
private school growing up umfrom all the way up until
college.
So I was very much in more oflike a white space growing up.
Whether you know outside of umanything else, it was mainly
just school was like.
I was the only black woman inmy middle school until, I think,
sixth grade and you know,obviously when you're a child
(21:17):
you don't see those things, youdon't notice it as much.
But when I got to high schoolit was a little bit more diverse
, especially with it being likeapplication process and things
like that, but still it wasstill heavy on white.
So going into college,especially with Ivy's, there's
(21:38):
bits and pieces that are kind ofthe same.
I think demographic-wise, mycollege and my high school are
pretty similar, but me beingable to be especially in sports
and being on teams and being ondifferent societies in college.
On teams and being on differentsocieties in college, I was
just immersed with so manydifferent kinds of people and
very, very interesting people.
When it comes to just the waythey grew up is very different
(22:00):
than mine, not necessarily in agood or bad way, just very
different experiences and I'mvery big on learning from
people's experiences because Ifeel like that could drive you
to being a different kind ofperson or, you know, just trying
something new and completely.
I met people start fromfreshman year of college.
I met someone that had donelike an internship and did
(22:22):
surgery on like a little babyand I'm like, where did you do
that?
And he's like, oh, I did it inTurkey.
And I was like I don't evenknow where Turkey is, like
what's going on.
So I was like I always say likeYale was such an amazing
experience because it just putme in such a space where I had
so many different kinds ofpeople from all over the world
and I talked to everybody tounderstand it.
(22:42):
So I think the biggest thingthat well one I had a high
school teammate and, honestly,childhood best friend that came
to Yale with me so she playedsoccer with me as well.
So that definitely helped kindof ground me of just like I'm
just a little girl from Florida,like sunrise Florida, like this
is, you know, I'm still just me.
So that definitely helped a lot.
(23:04):
But also I think I put a lot ofemphasis of just focusing on,
you know, the things that I cancontrol.
So I knew I wanted to dochemistry.
I knew I wanted to do chemistry,I knew I wanted to do well in
soccer.
So I just focused on those twothings.
And any like extracurricularstuff I was, you know, in a
painting class, I was on thedance team, etc.
(23:24):
Etc.
Those are just for fun, but aslong as I kind of focus and, you
know, have my goal from thestart and just try to get there
towards the end, that kind ofhelped just, you know, bring me
back to life of like, this is adream, but I see what I could do
, you know, while being in there.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
So I mean the transition from high school to
college.
From just about everyone islike oh my God, this is a lot
harder than I thought.
Yeah, and to balance that andsports on top of all that, while
you're used to the difficulty,challenges and you seem to have
always challenged yourself extra, like I know.
I wanted to do chemistry incollege as well and I went to a
(23:57):
very poor school.
We didn't have AP chemistry atall, but I did take two levels
of chemistry because we did havelike block scheduling so I
could take extra classes.
So it was like my junior yearand I'm in chem two and my
teacher walks by and nobody's inclass and she's like what are
you doing here?
I'm like waiting for you totake my class.
(24:18):
She's like you're not a senior.
I'm like, no, I'm a junior, andso the next two weeks I was
showing her photoshop becausethere was nothing for me to do
in my chemistry class.
But we didn't have.
Like you know, when I got tocollege I just got railroad by
chemistry, you know.
So the challenge is a littlebit too much for you, you know,
did you feel more overwhelmed?
And how do we balance that foryourself?
Speaker 2 (24:36):
um, honestly, I, I, I didn't feel that overwhelmed,
more so because, like Imentioned before I, we were, as
kids, very structured, in asense of like every time there
was something that we were doing, um, like there was always a
purpose.
So I I didn't mention thisbefore, but I also danced for
like 18 years of my life.
So not only was I doing schooland soccer, I was also dancing.
(24:59):
So it was like get up early inthe morning, go to my class at
high school, come back, um, goto middle school, middle school
soccer practice, go to club orclub soccer, go to dance or no,
go to dance and then go to clubsoccer.
Come home, homework, food, goto sleep, like that was the day.
Basically more things thanhours in the day, honestly.
(25:20):
So going into college was just abit of the same right.
It was morning practice, runthe class, run to lab, go back
to practice, homework, study,essay, study, essay, whatever it
is, sleep, repeat the next day.
So, yes, it intensified 100% interms of like level of
(25:40):
difficulty, but it was stillkind of the same movement.
I guess.
To me at least, yale was one ofthose places where it always
felt like everybody was there tohelp each other out, which I
really, really appreciated.
I didn't feel that at otherplaces that I went to go visit
before I committed.
(26:01):
So that was a big thing for me.
You know, like I want us all tosucceed, that's everything I
got from.
So if I needed help withsomething, it was very, very
easy to approach the professorsor approach the TA or something
like that was very, very easy toapproach the professors or
approach the TA or somethinglike that.
So if you know, I was fallingbehind because I was writing my,
my lab report on the bus backfrom a game.
(26:21):
They are really understandingwith that Cause they knew we're,
you know, we're collegeathletes.
Sometimes it's just impossibleto you know, make a class or
make a lab because I have a gameor practice or something like
that, definitely challenging.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
But again, I don't think it changed too too much
for me because I was.
I've been doing it for way toolong.
I mean when I took chemistry.
I know it's a lot of classesfor one class in chemistry
You're doing like your threehour classes.
You're doing three hours of lab, you're doing two hours of
pre-lab and then you know, allthis extra stuff.
It's like 10 hours a week andyou're just all day.
Yeah, that's just the one classyou know.
So, yeah, I can imagine.
So all I'm picturing is youhave, like you know, in harry
(27:00):
potter, with little time, turnerlike going back in time and
getting all your classes.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah, basically because, like I said, I had the
lab as well, which is five hours.
It's or four hours depending onhow the lab goes, but it's
usually all afternoon.
So it was like that.
I had to hop on the bus to goto the field to practice right
after.
Or, like I said, we have gameson the weekend, so I have a lab
report that's due on Monday.
I'm writing my lab report onthe drive to the field, play my
(27:24):
game.
On the ride back.
People can go out and dowhatever they want, but I'm
sitting there in the libraryfinishing my lab report.
But again, like stuff like that, I was like this is this seems
right, this is what I had to dobefore.
So it all adds up for me.
And, like I said, I had thegoal in mind of I want to be a
chemist, like I want to do that,but I also, you know, want to
(27:46):
be possibly a professionalsoccer player.
So these are my main focus.
Everything else, you know, canbe for fun or I enjoy it.
I will be try to fit the timein to do it.
I did a painting class, I diddrawing to kind of ease the
struggle with other things, butagain, like I always was, just
like you know.
These are the things I want todo.
If this is a sacrifice I haveto make right now, because it is
(28:07):
, then you know I'm going tobenefit later on, so yeah, it's
a it's a great mindset to have.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
It's a it's a great mindset to have and it's a
difficult it's a.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
It's a great mindset to have with a difficult thing
to keep on track.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, Definitely had help alongthe way from family, friends,
Like it's.
It's a hard thing to kind ofkeep consistent with.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
No, and I think the consistency is the key.
I mean, I think that'ssomething I tell Eva, my
daughter, all the time.
When it comes to soccer is like, yeah, don't expect yourself to
get from here to here in oneday.
It's little incrementalincreases, you just got to keep
doing it.
You just got to keep doing it.
You know, yeah, I keep doing it.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Yeah, so well yeah, and that's what I tell the kids
too.
It's when, especially when wedo technical sessions, I'm like
it might seem tedious becausewe're doing, you know, touches,
this touches this entire week.
But trust me, from what youguys were doing last week to
what we're going to be doingnext week, it's going to pay off
a lot.
You might not see it right nowbecause it's small games you
know, each hour, each day, butwhen you think about it in a
(29:03):
full scheme of things, you'relike, oh, it was worth it, like
I'll do that again, honestly,because it feels so much better
in the end.
So gotta keep that mindset asmuch as you can, as hard as it
can be and so then you ended upbecoming uh captain of your team
your senior year.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
How was that?
Speaker 2 (29:20):
that was amazing, um.
I, like I said, I was blessedto have such great teammates
that I'm best friends with tillum this day.
But it was interesting becauseI had a lot of struggles through
college when it came toinjuries as well.
So my oh gosh, my sophomoreyear I broke my dislocated and
broke my ankle in our first gameof the season, so I was out for
(29:41):
the season, unfortunately, um.
So that was super, super tough.
My parents were there.
They saw the whole thing.
My brother was watching thegame online.
He saw the whole thing.
It was the best um.
And then, right before thesummer, before my senior year, I
tore my Achilles.
So, again out for the season.
So it came for it came to me tobe a captain that isn't on the
(30:04):
field for, you know, a wholeteam of girls, which was a
difficult thing, of course, froma perspective of, like I want
to play pro, want to do this,like this should be my year,
this should be like the bestyear that I can get.
Um.
But also I'm now the captainlike how am I going to captain a
team when I'm not even on thefield?
Um, so, looking back early,even when I was in the moment,
(30:25):
to be honest, I kind of satmyself down and I was like, okay
, this is the state of thesituation, like I'm not going
gonna stitch my Achilles backtogether, like how am I gonna
make this?
You know, make the most of this?
Um, and it I'm honestly, I goback and forth, but it is a
thankful moment of like, yes,that happened, but I learned so,
so much from just being, youknow, a leader off the field.
(30:46):
Um, I had to learn how to becaptain coach, like I had to
learn how to be that middlebridge between the players and
the coaches and try to delegatecertain things and, you know,
hear their problems, bring it tothe coach and try to find a
compromise.
Um, so all of those lessons.
You know, as unfortunate as aninjury is and I know a lot of
people, that happens to a lot ofpeople unfortunately um, like I
(31:09):
have to see the good in itbecause it's like I'm going to.
You know I can't cry every day,like I can't.
You know it's going to bring medown if I think about it the
other way.
So I'm like, okay, how can Imake this, you know, benefit
from this as much as possible?
So you know I had to go.
I did a lot of leadershipclasses.
I did, you know, a lot ofdifferent things to see as best
as I can how can I lead thisteam?
It was a different thing but,like I said, I'm grateful for it
(31:32):
and it was one of my favoriteseasons just because I had the
best class.
That helped you know, they werekind of captains All seven of
them were captains for me.
We kind of had we captained theteam together, which was a
really, really differentexperience than we've had the
past three years.
So things like that.
You know, I try to see at leastthe benefit out of those, those
(31:53):
kinds of things, because, youknow, wasn't our best season but
it's still pretty good seasonand I couldn't have done that
without any of the people thathelped me out as well, as you
know my coach and try to figureout you know how I can still,
you know, be involved as much aspossible.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
And so then you ended up going to get your master's.
And you were also playingsoccer at the same time, so this
was all in.
England.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah.
So you know the persistentperson that I am.
I was like I'm not going to goout on an injury.
Like that can't happen.
So, of course, you know,throughout that year I was doing
physical therapy.
They told me I usually Achillesis like an eight to you know,
eight months to a year recovery.
I was like I'm going to beseven months.
(32:39):
I think I'm going to work ashard as I can.
Um.
So throughout that whole seasonI was just working, working,
working.
I played with the team in thespring, um, I think my recovery
process was like the six toseven mark, um, seven, six to
seven month mark and played withthe team during the spring.
It was definitely hard, youknow, trying to get back into
the aggression and all thosekinds of things, but I use that
(33:02):
to be like okay, I capable ofcoming back from such a bad
injury to play again.
So did that, played with theJamaican team a bit, um, and
then I ended up saying, okay, Imight want to do my master's and
my PhD in chemistry.
Where's the best place where Icould do that as well as so play
?
Um, I have.
So my dad is from England uh,he was from.
(33:25):
He's from Crodon, england, sosouth, like out London area, so
I have family over there.
So I was like this is perfect.
They speak English, like thisis amazing.
Um, and, like I said, we're abig fan soccer family, so we're
Chelsea fans and I was likeLondon's perfect, like let me go
, let me go over there and um,go see a couple Premier League
games and all those kinds ofstuff.
(33:45):
So went over there.
I actually went a little bitnorth though.
I went University of Nottingham, um, I did my master's of
research.
So, strictly, lab work, youknow your typical nine to five,
basically what I do now, typicalnine to five kind of thing in
lab.
But I was like, okay, how can Iplay as well while I'm here?
So played with the school teamand also trained with Bristol
(34:06):
City, trained with Leicester,played against Austin Villa and
things like that for the women'sside.
So did all of those kinds ofthings, just because I was like
I'm not gonna let an injury takeme out, because my goal was to
be a professional soccer player,like I want to, I want to make
it, I want to um work as hard asI can to get there.
So I I did.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
I think I really, really wanted to, just walk up
to the like to a club and say,hey, I'm interested, or like,
how does it?
Speaker 2 (34:32):
no, yeah, so is there a link in for soccer, like
what's going on honestly, kindof being in the soccer world is
an interesting thing because itseems so big but it actually is
kind of small in some waysbecause everybody just knows
each other.
Um, and it just so happenedthat the one of the assistant
coach or uh, I believe it wasupenn university of pennsy of
Pennsylvania, who I playedagainst before and she seen me
(34:54):
play she happened to be one ofthe coaches for a London team
over in England and she was likeah, she was like oh, you're
coming, like this isthis is the team you can come
play with us, or things likethat.
And then the coach that was atthe time she didn't end up being
my coach, but before the so theschool that I went to that I
was playing with their team,she's currently, uh, the
(35:16):
national coach for NorthernIreland.
She was the assistant coach forChelsea women's team, uh, so
she also had a lot ofconnections.
So she was like, yeah, send mea highlight tape.
I sent her that.
I have like a soccer resume, um, I sent her that and she was
like, oh, yeah, come, come play,like you can come play with us,
um, and a couple tryouts hereand there and stuff like that.
So a lot of connections in someways.
(35:37):
But, like I said, it's thesoccer world is.
Everybody knows each other, um,so reach out to my coach, my
coach reached out to somebodyelse and then all of a sudden
I'm like on a team doingsomething else, uh, but yeah, so
.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
So what is one of the things that pops up a lot in
here?
Networking, networking isreally important.
Yeah, yeah, it's one of thethings that pops up a lot in
here Networking.
Networking is really importantyeah it's huge, it really really
is, and you kind of yada yada'dyour Jamaican team.
What was your experience withthat?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah, the Jamaican team was amazing.
So I played when I was youngerand I was playing against them
when I was on the US nationalteam.
When I was younger, younger,and I was playing against them
when I was on the U?
S national team.
Uh, when I was younger.
But as I got older I knew thatyou know my family's mainly
Jamaican, british, um, and Iwant to play for Jamaica, cause
I feel like that just felt moremeaningful for me.
(36:25):
Um, so when I uh one of thecoaches at the time, he again a
lot of connections, a lot oflittle things at the time.
He again a lot of connections,a lot of little things.
He was the head coach of a teamin Orlando and we played
against his team so many timeswe've beaten, we've lost.
It's just they were one of ourrivals growing up so he already
knew who I was as a player.
(36:47):
So when I mentioned, I think myfather mentioned to him that I
wanted to change over and playfor the Jamaican team.
He ended up being the head coachfor the Jamaican team like a
year or two after he called meup while I was at college and
stuff like that.
So I played with them for acouple of qualifying games.
I couldn't go to the last onebecause, like I mentioned, I
tore my Achilles, so that lastone I couldn't go to and that's
(37:16):
also part of the reason why Iworked so hard to get back um
into uh playing after myAchilles, cause that summer it
was the world cup Um.
So I went to South Africa withthe team, played with them there
.
Um I unfortunately couldn'tplay in the actual world cup
because of the Achilles.
I wasn't well um cleared toplay.
But again, even doing thequalifying match, even doing all
of those things and trainingwith the team, was more than
enough um experience and meetingsuch lovely people.
(37:39):
So very, very grateful for thatthat's, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Um, and so, going back to grad school, you're
doing your lab, you're doingthis stuff and then I guess you
graduate is do you decide tocome back to connecticut or?
Speaker 2 (37:53):
yeah, so that was around when COVID started.
So there was a lot of thingsshutting down.
I couldn't go in lab anymoreand I was applying to PhD
programs.
But I also reached back out tomy old lab head at Pfizer when I
did the internship and I wasjust wondering if there was any
jobs.
I don't know, maybe somethingpops up, cause I knew from that
(38:16):
experience I wanted to come,either come back to Pfizer or go
into pharmaceuticals in general.
So he mentioned there's acouple open positions.
You know, if you apply, justlet me know.
And I applied for that and Ialso applied for PhD programs.
And even though I did get intoPhD programs, especially over in
the UK, and I was thinkingabout staying so I could play a
bit more, um, I knew that Imissed a lot of my family, my
(38:39):
mom, my brother, um, and beingcloser to them met a lot,
especially during that such ahard time for everybody.
Um, so chose to.
I fortunately got the job atPfizer and just moved back over
um cold state of connecticut, um, but you know it was still part
of home to me because I went toschool here, so I still knew
(39:01):
the area.
I still had a lot of friendshere.
I still had, you know, thingsthat I knew that I could do
around here, um and again acouple connections of getting me
to ct, rush to play and, um,coach there and get to know the
team.
It still connected me to soccereven to play and coach there
and get to know the team.
It still connected me to soccer, even though I chose to not
play professionally anymore.
I knew I wanted to do something.
So I was like, okay, if I workat Pfizer, that's amazing.
(39:25):
I had my goal of beingprofessional.
I did that.
So now let's, maybe this is thetime for me to make my goal of
being a professional chemist tosome extent.
So, you know, didn't want tolose the soccer side.
So you know, that's where thecoaching comes in.
But this is, you know, I'm onthe path of, you know, getting
to that other goal that I alsoset for myself when I was
younger.
So that kind of, I think,geared me to making that big
(39:48):
decision of coming back over.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Yeah, and when it comes to being like a scientist
and a chemist, you know, I thinkit's kind of a foggy world for
most people.
They don't know like, yeah, howdo you become a scientist, how
do you become like, what doesthat mean?
Speaker 2 (40:05):
yeah, what does that mean no, yeah, I am chemistry, I
love chemistry, I'm a bigperson that does puzzles.
I I like jigsaw, like any kindof crossword, something that you
can solve, basically.
And chemistry is an interestingthing where you're presented,
you know a structure that youhave to figure out how to make.
(40:26):
You know a lot of these thingsare very, very new and you know
first in class is what we callit.
So it was one of those thingswhere, like this is something I
can be very creative and it'svery difficult.
It's not for everybody.
You definitely have to have thementality of being very
persistent because 99% of thetime your reactions don't work
(40:49):
and that's a very stressful,very hard thing to kind of just
like ingest every day.
But when you think about thebig picture of like okay, if
this thing actually works and,you know, goes through the
clinicals and becomes a drug ina couple of years, that's
amazing, like that's going toaffect a lot of people.
So, again, that you know endgoal, that outcome is what I
usually gets me out through theday.
(41:09):
Honestly, that's my day to day.
But thinking about, you know,becoming a chemist, being coming
a scientist you know scientistsis a very broad thing, cause
you could be a scientist andlike a lot of different things,
um, but being a chemist ingeneral it's.
You know, like I mentioned, itis difficult, but I always think
it's very fun Cause, like Imentioned, I'm a puzzle person.
(41:29):
I like to solve problems, I liketo, you know, try to talk and
figure it out as best as I can.
And, like I said, my chemistryteacher in high school is what
brought me here.
She made chemistry so so fun.
She connected it to our dailything.
She said you know, you likecooking, it's basically cooking
(41:50):
to some extent.
So, thinking about how joyousshe was, I was like, okay, maybe
I can actually do that.
So, having that from theremoving into college, doing it
all four years, trying to getconnections there and now doing
it Pfizer, it's like it's, it'samazing.
I love my job.
I kind of make my own scheduleto some extent, where you know I
(42:10):
still have to watch my gamesand Premier League and all that
good stuff, champions League.
So you know I plan my meetingsand I'm in lab the most part.
So I am on my feet, I work withmy hands.
You know, your typical ifpeople think about like
chemistry, you're in your labcoat, you have your goggles, you
have your gloves, all of thosekinds of things.
But it is a great community andgreat, great people that I work
(42:33):
with, so very happy to be there.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
And is it still something you're thinking about
for PhD?
Speaker 2 (42:40):
I am.
It still trickles in the back ofmy mind, but it's interesting
because I have this battlebetween, you know, staying where
I am and kind of just learningthrough experience versus a PhD.
I think there's very bigbenefits to both through
experience versus a PhD.
I think there's very bigbenefits to both.
But currently I've beenlearning so much over the past
three, four years that I've beenwith the company Just, you know
(43:03):
, being moved to differentprojects, working on different
things and working withdifferent people where, like you
don't get that as often with aPhD, where you're very highly
focused on one thing.
So I've been enjoying this sofar.
I always say that, like you know, I'm probably at the point
where I might not go back, butagain, like I always thrive to
be the best that I can be, so ifI, you know, next year, in a
(43:26):
couple months, I feel like it'sprobably the best thing for me,
that can kind of move me up alittle bit faster or get to
where I want to be, then I'll gofor it.
But currently I'm very happy of, you know, learning from all
just inaction on the job kind ofthing.
So it's been nice.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Nice, I mean um.
Like you said, people thinkscientists they don't really
have an idea.
So it's nice to kind of getkind of idea of what the hell
the scientists do.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Yeah, it's very much like you expect of like a little
beaker.
You know, sometimes you have alittle color change.
You're basically mixingtogether to try to make
something else.
Yeah, it's, trust me, it's very, very complicated, but on a
grand scheme of things, it'sit's.
It's very simple.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
And you?
You started working duringCOVID.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
You said Yep, so right in 2020, I believe, is
when?
When did I graduate, ohgoodness?
So I started working at likemiddle to end of 2020.
So right in the midst of COVID,basically.
So that was a very challenging,challenging time because, as I
mentioned, I'm in lab for themost part, so I'm in person, I
(44:38):
go in office all the time.
So it was a lot of restrictionswhen it comes to how many
people who's qualified to beonsite.
So we're not risking anythingsix feet apart, which is also
difficult because I work rightnext to somebody.
Like our lab hoods are rightnext to each other, but I had to
be moved on the other side.
There's a lot of there's a lotof safety reasons why?
(44:59):
Because I can't be in lab bymyself.
Just in case something happens,someone has to be there, but
six feet apart.
There was a lot.
It was.
It was very, very difficult andvery stressful time for many
reasons, but I mean it's alreadya very restrictive job.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Like you, have very set rules that I need to do this
a certain way, and anyadditional variables just
complicate things.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Complicates it completely Exactly.
So it was stress already packedon more stress that I was there
already.
So it was definitely, um, aninteresting time.
Thankfully we're in a lotbetter time now, um, but yeah,
like I I'm.
It's interesting because I alsocan compare it to when I was an
intern, where there was, youknow, bustling of people all
(45:46):
over the place.
It was very lively, you know.
We had events, we hadinterviews, we had a bunch of
stuff going on, whereas when Istarted actually on the job, it
was silent.
There was like six people in mylittle area.
So, yeah, it was definitely aninteresting situation, but,
again, grateful to be able tostart and have an impact on that
(46:06):
whole pandemic.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
So yeah, what kind of things were you working on?
Was it even co-related, or wasthere other things that you were
working?
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Yeah, so I didn't work on like because at that
point, so a lot of the timesit's kind of hard to explain but
the drug process is very long.
So it usually takes like fiveto 10 years for anything to come
out.
So for Pfizer to be able to getthat out super, super quickly
was a lot like it was very, veryhard to do.
A lot of people had to beinvolved.
So I was involved to like someextent when it came to more like
(46:39):
the analytical side of things,but like it was already moving
through the process where I am.
So the things that I usuallywork on, like what I'm working
on now, is very early stage.
So we make very small amountsof compounds and things like
that to be tested and like onrats and things like that.
So it's very more so smallscale and then when things come
(47:01):
back, data comes back very good.
Then it can go larger scale andit goes into the clinic, et
cetera, et cetera.
So there's a lot of differentplaces in hand.
So that's why I said there's alot of people involved, um, but
I'm more on like the early stageof trying to discover stuff.
So it's a bit harder because,like I said, a lot of the times
it's new space, um, and you'rekind of, you know, piecing
(47:22):
things together to make it makesense, um.
But yeah, it was interestingbecause the people around me,
since they were working therebefore, were highly involved
with it, so I was just watchingthem and seeing what's going on
and seeing how the process goes.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
But yeah, Nice, and so now you're doing that and
you're also coaching.
You know what impact hascoaching had on your life on
your life.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
Oh, coaching has been amazing.
That guy I at first, when Ifirst started coaching, I was
coaching.
Well, to be honest, I was firststarting coaching in Florida,
um, with like a U11 team of theold club team that I used to
play for and I was just in andout.
I was more doing training.
Um, because me, growing uptraining with my dad, my dad was
my coach for when I was younger, until I moved to the girls
team and he trained my brotherand I throughout our entire life
(48:13):
.
Basically so, being a coach atfirst I was like, okay, let me
just do training and kind of getto know the girls and see how
the club team is, etc.
Etc.
And then, you know, someonereached out and was like why
don't you coach the team?
Like I feel like you'd bereally good at this?
Um, it was like, okay, I'll tryit out.
I did older girls just because,again, you know, I just came out
(48:35):
of playing professionally, Ican get them to give some advice
to that aspect.
But what drew me to be more soa coach for like the younger
girls was I was so, so excitedto go to practice when I was
younger.
I loved going to practice Of togo to practice.
When I was younger I lovedgoing to practice.
Of course you get to hang outwith your friends and things
(48:55):
like that.
But just learning something new, trying, you know, new skills
at practice Um, I was a defender, so I was like maybe I could
score today.
Things like that that you knowyou don't usually do.
Um, I just I was like, okay, mybrother taught me this, how can
I bring this into my game?
Things like that.
I I wanted to be able toprovide that excitement for
girls that when I was that young, like that age, so doing it,
like with your daughter and theteam that I have now, it's been
(49:16):
so, so rewarding and super fun.
Because my biggest thing as acoach is, you know, skill can
always be taught.
You can learn that.
You're going to learn thatthroughout your entire soccer
career, basically.
But you know the love for thegame is a very hard thing to
achieve.
So you know I'm going to be ahard coach.
I'm going to make sure you knowthey're learning and they're
I'm teaching them things, but Ialso want them to love it.
(49:38):
I want them to enjoy practiceand the games.
It's not necessarily aboutwinning and losing Everybody
loves winning.
But as long as they understandthe game, as long as they, you
know, think they played wellthat day and they know why, like
things went wrong, etc, etc.
That's gonna go a long way andespecially when they get older,
that's gonna play a big part intheir soccer career.
So that's been one of myfavorite things, just to see how
(49:59):
the development goes yeah, no,and it's been great.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
I mean from a parent's side of point of view,
like when it's funny because Ihad eva come there.
She had only been playing likea year of soccer at that point
when she tried out for you guyslike a little over a year, um,
and I kind of did it becausesome of the other girls were
doing it and they were like ohyeah, and I'm like, and I just
kept telling her you might notmake it.
(50:23):
So just accept that you mightnot make it, but I think it'd be
good to practice going totrials yeah, it's like a new
learning experience.
She's so nervous.
Yeah, she's like okay and shejust went and just played and
you know, then we got the letterin and I was like Anita, I
don't think we can buy a carright now because we're gonna
have to pay soccer, you knowwe're gonna have to hold off a
bit on buying a new car.
(50:45):
We got a new bill that we'regonna do and, yeah, we've been
with you for like half a year alittle over half a year and the
progress has been tremendous,like even when we go back to rec
you know, the town soccer the,the other coaches who have seen
here like oh my god, she wentfrom barely able to move forward
to like just control stuff andI'm just like, yeah, and I still
(51:07):
think she has stuff to improveon.
So it's just amazing.
So you know, you know I Ireally appreciate all the work
you put into it and I seefirsthand experience.
You know how much she's grownfrom it, and like even just her
head swivel, just like being onthe field where she can know,
Ooh, I got to come.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
Yeah, look at her.
No, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
So, yeah, usually around you know, near the end,
when we start talking, you know,I always like to come back and
ask you know, if you could goback and talk to a younger
version of yourself.
What's something you'd tellyourself?
What advice would you giveyourself?
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Oh, I would say such a good question.
I think you know as persistent,as, like I claim to be, or I
hope to be, I think still like,I would love to tell myself to
keep going and keep pushing.
There is going to be adifficult path, like I went
through a lot of stuff.
I lost my father in the midstof college time.
(52:06):
There's, there's just a lot ofthings that are going to happen,
but you have to keep going.
Um, there's always, you know,the light at the end of the
tunnel, kind of thing.
Um, and like you know, life isgoing to be hard and most of the
time, as much as you can plan,it's probably not going to go
the way you think it's going togo, um, but it's going to go the
way it's supposed to.
(52:27):
So it, you know it's, it's hard, but you got to keep pushing.
You just got to keep going.
I told myself that today.
I want to tell myself thatbefore and, you know, hopefully
in the future, keep tellingmyself that.
Speaker 1 (52:37):
So yeah, awesome, yeah, and I love the way you
said it.
It's not going to go the wayyou expect, but it's going to go
the way it's supposed to Me,and my wife kind of do that all
the time, like you know, if it'smeant to me, it's meant to be.
Let's just yeah leave it ingod's hand and keep moving
forward.
You know so exactly um, and so,ultimately, you know, you know
how do you say success inspanglish oh, that's a good one
(53:00):
too.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
Um, no, yeah, I, that's such a good question.
I think it's just a matter of,like I mentioned before, success
to me is just making my parentsproud, making my family proud
and, honestly, making myselfproud, um, thinking about how
much I've gone through and whatI, my little self, planned to be
and I was able to at leastaccomplish it.
(53:22):
Not necessarily in the way likeyou said, like not in the way
that I saw it, not nearly theway I saw it.
They think I was going to go,you know, to Yale specifically.
I didn't know I was going to go.
You know, take Yalespecifically.
I didn't know I was going to doPfizer and all that stuff.
But you know, I'm making myselfproud and making my family
proud, especially my parents andmy older brother.
Like that's that's success tome.
Like I did it, that's that'sall I wanted to do and hopefully
(53:45):
I could get there.
So, yeah, nice, and.
I guess my last question is whatis your real opinion of Harvard
?
So they're fine, I guess no, no, I have some friends that went
to Harvard too.
They're, they're fine.
But you know, bulldogs isreally like the way to go.
Speaker 1 (54:06):
I went to Boston University, so I have a lot of
friends from Harvard as well, soI always know oh, it's Harvard
Yale, it's Harvard Yale.
They go okay.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
Yeah, it's funny because it's like, oh, it's the
rivalry.
But personally we always arefine, everyone's friends, we're
all good.
But no, it's all about Yale,it's all about the Bulldogs.
I'm through and through.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
Yale through Yelly till I die.
So blue and white only Awesome.
Well, uh, Brittany, thank youso much for taking the time and
sharing your story.
Uh, you know you, you've gonethrough so much and you're a
great motivation to you, knowthe girls on your field, and so
I really appreciate you takingthe time to come out here and
talk to me.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
So, thank you so much .
Oh my gosh, no, yeah, thank youfor having me.
This was great.
I love this Awesome.
Yeah, well, thank you so much.
Oh my gosh, yeah, thank you forhaving me.
This was great.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
I love this, awesome.
Yeah, well, thank you so muchand obviously, for everyone else
listening, thank you so muchfor tuning in, as always.
I hope you'll join me againnext time as we continue to
learn how to say success inSpanish.
(55:15):
Thank you.
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