Lacey Ellison '16 Recruiting Profile

From an early age, I enjoyed learning and knew from my sophomore year that I wanted to pursue a career in Psychology and in particular, a Masters in Counseling. I have always enjoyed talking to and listening to the stories of others. The parallels of struggle, sacrifice and success are a common thread in the lives of many of the people whom I have met and become friends with, over the years. Their stories have motivated me. Seeing the struggles they endured and the common themes to their survival is something I want to better understand and with the proper education, share with others as they struggle through life.

My grades are only half the story. While I have made A’s and B’s throughout the course of my school years, I have not been afraid to raise my own bar and I promptly took college Pre-AP and AP classes as soon as I could in my Freshman year and continued through the following years. While excelling in my school work and achieving high scores, I played soccer with both the Austin Texan’s and Bastrop Inferno as well as four full years on the Bastrop High School Varsity Soccer team. During that time, I achieved MVP, freshman/sophomore second team as well as first team all-district in my junior year.

The drive that I have in my educational pursuits is found equally in my efforts on the field. While achieving the accomplishments in the classroom, I earned the respect of my fellow players as team captain in my junior year and likely will be team captain again this year.  As team captain, I found my passion for understanding and helping others, a valuable tool in leading, mentoring and participating with my teammates.

It was a bit of a surprise to my family and friends, that at the age of 7, while watching my sister play soccer, I was outrunning her teammates as I ran along the sidelines… in flip flops. I realized I had a drive and passion for soccer and soon was playing with my own team scoring 9 goals per season and contributing with 20 assists.  Not bad for a three pound baby girl born at nearly three months premature. I tend to think my will to live at such an early and fragile age has contributed to my passion to succeed in both the classroom and on the field.

Activities I am involved with outside of the classroom and off the field vary anywhere from local community efforts to clean up the flood-ravaged banks of the Colorado River to reading to under-privileged and language-challenged children in the local elementary schools. I am also an avid runner who enjoys a good movie and occasional silent moments to focus on my spiritual growth.