Kelly Spielman '16 Recruiting Profile

Over the past couple months, college has been one of the bigger topics among my household. I am the oldest of three children in my family, all girls fortunately. So these talks have been serious conversations with many questions up in the air since I am the first child to experience this process. My parents do the best they can to help me but things are obviously very different now versus 25 years ago. I know that I definitely want to play Women’s tennis in college, but where? This is where the questions come in. I know that I posses many different qualities that’s recruiters would look for when running their search process. I have always been the girl that loves to go above and beyond when completing a task; cleaning my room is much more then just vacuuming the floor and dusting a little, it requires reorganizing the drawers and color coding all the shirts again. I have never been and never will be afraid to put in a little more work then my neighbor, some tasks just require that. Being raised in a family that lives by moral of “earning every penny by working for it” has given me the work ethic that I need to succeed. My first job was present to me around the age of eleven or twelve, I was moving lawns every week in the summer and babysitting as much as time allowed. In my eyes the world was a very big place, with lots of cool toys and things I wanted. Mommy and Daddy were not going to get me everything I wanted so I needed to take some responsibility and buy it with my own money. In the end I’ve learned that all these lessons are to prepare me for when I’m in the big city all alone one day. Along with my hard work ethic, I believe it is extremely important to give back to the community.  Volunteering, donating, walking/running for a cause are all things that should be inquired into everyone’s lives at some point. Not only does it feel good to be helping others, it is sensibly the right thing to do. This is why I joined a club at our school called “Spartan Youth Service”, we do a lot of volunteering at local places to help others! Many people are very fortunate and don’t realize the pain others are going through, so it’s important to recognize the misfortunate. At my high school I am involved in a club called “Peer Partners” this group meets once a week during lunch with kids at school who have some disability, it’s amazing to see how much they enjoy our company. Another strong quality that I live by and demonstrate is leadership. I am never afraid to take the lead of a group or project. These last 3 years I have done numerous things for the tennis team, and also these past two years I have took on the role of leading my homeroom for school. Obviously there are more minor things but I am never afraid to step up and take on a new task each and everyday. Clearly I am not the only one who noticed my act of responsibility because freshman year I was asked to be apart of a group called “Spartan Leaders” which I have been apart of since! This group meets once a month and discusses important topics and ways to make our high school a better place to be. We also run fundraisers to donate to a society once a year. So if you are looking for a responsible, respectful, hard-working, reliable well-rounded student and athlete to attend your college your pick is safe if it’s me!