Leadership #1

Hey everyone! My name is Hailey Kaufman and I am from ten minutes north of Chicago, IL. I am actually right across the street from Northwestern University's Ryan Field. I have a younger brother named Max, who is currently a sophomore in high school playing football and baseball. We are super close and people actually confuse us as twins. My family over break rescued a five-month-old chocolate lab from Puerto Rico and we named him Tito. I am a huge Chicago sports fan and specifically with the Blackhawks. My aunt actually works for the owner of the team so my family has been fans forever. Growing up in Chicago and in the atmosphere of Northwestern, sports have been huge part of my life. I played soccer through high school and was recruited to some smaller D1 schools but decided I wanted that big school atmosphere and Big Ten experience here at Ohio State. Actually my senior year my high school team won state! My high school was called New Trier High School and I graduated with 1,200 kids in my class. Actually on graduation day I was introducing myself to the people around me! Crazy big! So in a way I was prepared for how big Ohio State is. Here at OSU I am currently a sophomore studying Sport Industry and minoring in business. I am currently interning with the Columbus Blue Jackets hockey team and want to continue that path and work in the NHL after school. 

I think the biggest leadership role I have held was during high school was as a senior class on my soccer team raised over $17,000 for a non-profit organization in South Africa. One of our girl’s soccer alumni reached out to our head coach and explained the program she was spearheading in the small towns of Africa. The program is called RV United, part of Grassroots Soccer, and is a girls soccer club that promotes healthy lifestyles for girls ages 8-18. The idea for the team started when Grassroots soccer volunteers saw an influx of girls going through their systems. The team was in desperate need of funding to stay alive for these girls to play soccer. My coach immediately jumped on the opportunity and told our fellow teammate not to worry that we would raise the money. The senior class in my high school's soccer program was put in charge of the event. We campaigned all throughout our township, at our games, and in school. At the end of the year banquet we were able to present a check for over $17,000 over Skype to the girls of RV United. I loved this project because I loved the idea that we were helping girls just like us play the simple game we loved.