Hill encourages female athletes to be ‘persistent’

Continued from Back Page neurship when she first founded her company, had to delegate responsibilities as her business grew. All three women said that working hard and staying consistent contributed greatly to their current success.

“I was not the best soccer player,” Sitch said. “I was fit. I could work hard. I would outwork anyone on any day. That was my biggest strength. I would run fitness in my street with my dad standing there with a stopwatch timing me. Anything I could do to put myself in the best situation to give myself the best opportunity to go after my dreams.”

Continued from Back Page were big differences in terms of snow quality at Blowing Rock compared to Colorado, but she still enjoyed skiing again regardless. Most of the snow produced on Sugar Mountain comes from a snow blower, which distributes man-made snow onto the runs. This type of snow tends to freeze faster than real snow, which can create tricky conditions — especially for new skiers.

“We had to ski with all this fake snow and a lot of ice,” Abraham said. “Even though I live in Colorado, I actually haven’t skied in five years, so it was definitely fun to get back in the swing of things.”

Nakash explained that it’s difficult to find time between school, internships and other extracurriculars to travel to a mountain where she can ski.

“I don’t think I could see myself having another time in the near future when I would [be able to] go skiing,” Nakash said. “I think giving students the chance to go and have a great outof-the-ordinary experience was my favorite part of it.”

— Contact Tallulah Story at tallulah.story@emory.edu

While believing in oneself is crucial, Hill said relying on others for assistance and insight is equally important for maneuvering up the professional ladder. Hill emphasized that while it can take effort to foster connections and form meaningful relationships with others, having a broad professional network is an invaluable asset when seeking new opportunities in the sports industry.

“Every job that I’ve had has been because of someone I knew,” Hill said. “Just being very intentional about networking and meeting people and staying in touch with them, and not just always asking for things but being a resource back to them as well. It’s a give-and-take relationship.”

Story devoted much time and energy into nurturing female relationships within the sports indus- try during her development of The Sports Power Brunch. Founded in 2019, the annual event brings together female sports professionals in an effort to empower them and celebrate their successes. Within her own business, Story has surrounded herself with women who contribute positively to the workplace environment, as she views those caring inter-female relationships as being crucial to motivating young ambitious women to remain in the business. port for one another, the more likely men are to back female colleagues.

“In general, I think women need to continue to lift women up and advocate for each other versus breaking us down,” Sitch said. “I also think one thing that needs to continue to improve too is men advocating for women as well, and advocating for us or when we are qualified or more than qualified or overqualified than some other people, then they should be advocating for us. I think if we advocate for each other, I think it will continue to improve and help men advocate for us as well.”

“Sometimes when you get in a [leadership] role, you notice that sometimes women can be mean and nasty,” Story said. “Sometimes it turns younger women off from wanting to get in the business or for them to even excel. There are so many people who I know personally who’ve left the business altogether because someone who was in leadership just had a nasty attitude or wasn’t nurturing.”

In a similar vein, Sitch noted that the more vocal women are in their sup-

When asked what career advice they would offer the collegiate student-athletes in attendance, all three women spoke about the importance of building a community of reliable and driven people. As Hill said, however, improving one’s own professional habits — following through on commitments, independent problemsolving and staying passionate about one’s work — is what makes candidates stand out to employers.

“Being dependable [is important],” Hill said. “That makes a big difference to people when they see that you’re dedicated to what you’re doing. Also being persistent, not taking no for an answer. Just being persistent and not being so easy to just give up and say, “It didn’t go my way. I didn’t get what I wanted. Let me just give up.’”

— Contact Claire Fenton at claire.fenton@emory.edu