Raesa Sheikh '21 Recruiting Profile

My inspirations have been the biggest contributors throughout my journey of learning and advancing as a student-athlete. My parents have always been my role models; they are both hard working, have strong organization skills, and are always smiling regardless of the outcome of any situation. My father introduced me to golf when I was a young girl, while on a trip down to Florida one summer, he took me out to a local golf course where I started playing. I eventually enrolled into a weekend camp, where I won the ending tournament, and was pleased to hear the coach telling my parents that I should continue competing. Another one of my influences is my journey through spirituality and meditation, which has allowed me to learn the importance of staying balanced through my sport and academics.

Through playing golf, I have learned that I have to stay calm when things are not going my way, open-minded to explore new shots, and positive so as to not let negative emotions affect me. I have also learned how to overcome a number of obstacles, including persisting through the struggles associated with a culture that does not feel women should participate in sports or be highly educated. Another challenge for me was learning to organize my time in respect to my busy golf schedule, but I have overcome this by setting and achieving goals such as maintaining an 80% average in school, and a decent scoring average throughout my tournaments, which I hope to maintain through college as well.  I also like to stay physically active (which I have demonstrated by partaking in a number of different sports), therefore I believe that as a strong, mindful, and determined athlete, I would be a great fit in any team setting.