Seniors Amanda Care and Katie Charles are not your average senior field hockey players. Even though they spend hours of time on the field practicing a sport they fell in love with in middle school, Care and Charles are also overachieving Northwestern students.
Care has been able to balance the responsibilities and pressures of playing a Big Ten sport while also handling the academic intensity in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Care, a mechanical engineer, cherishes both field hockey and engineering and understands the pressures of the two fields.
“Field hockey and engineering are hard in different ways. Both of them are challenging, but I wouldn’t give up any of them. But field hockey is definitely more fun,” Care said.
Just like her teammate, Charles has found joy outside of field hockey. Charles is no stranger to balancing academics and sports. She was her high school’s class valedictorian while lettering in lacrosse and field hockey. In college, Charles choose to major in anthropology with a focus on public health. After graduation, Charles plans to take a year off and then go back to school to get her master’s degree in public health. Charles is specifically interested in international public health, an inspiration that found her after a visit to Africa this past summer.
“I would love to go back to Africa to help with the public health problems there,” Charles said.
Even though Care and Charles will be taking on endeavors off the field hockey field, they will cherish the memories they had the last four years with the Cats.
Care is going to miss the sport that she gave up soccer for and has played since 7th grade. Most of all, Care is going to miss the team.
“The thing I’m going to miss most about the team is just being a part of a team and having constant companionship and friendship,” Care said. “Being a part of a team is like being a part of a family.”
Like Care, Charles cherishes the memories that she had with her teammates. The most enjoyable time she ever had hanging out with her teammates came earlier this year when the team traveled to England to begin their spring schedule. In England, the Cats competed internationally and this is where Charles believes that she really had a chance to bond with her teammates.
“I’m really going to miss just having 26 other teammates to hang out with outside the field,” Charles said.
Charles hopes that she has impacted her teammates as much as they have impacted her.
“I want my teammates to remember me just as someone who is hardworking and passionate about field hockey and has always played for the team,” Charles said.
These two Cats’ members, along with four other seniors, will be honored Sunday against Michigan, NU’s last home game of the season.
Reach Cleyana Mayweather at [email protected].
