This is part of a series highlighting recent ACE participants who are finding meaningful ways to connect and build on their ACE experience beyond their three-week ACE summer program. After student-athlete participants complete their ACE summer, they are encouraged to think about a specific goal that connects their ACE experience to their life in a meaningful way. ACE staff support this process through the development of a personal ACE Action Plan and 1-1 coaching, group meetings, and check-ins throughout the year. Learn more about the ACE Plan Process and other ways ACE student-athletes are supported post-experience.
Sydney Steele, a junior on the Stanford Softball team and an ACE in Place Vietnam 2021 alum, has helped found Cardinal Community, a group that provides student-athletes with easily accessible community service opportunities.
Steele explained her motivation for helping found such an organization: it’s typically a little harder for student-athletes to access community service opportunities due to scheduling and time constraints.
“Given a program like ACE, I wanted to help inspire student-athletes to be involved as an active member of the community. For how eye-opening ACE was for me, I wanted other student-athletes to get experiences like that. Maybe they can’t do ACE but still wanted to get involved with things, and I wanted to provide an opportunity for that.”
Not everything has been easy though – fall quarter presented some challenges for Steele and her team.
“The fall was a little hard because of COVID, and COVID is still a challenge now. A lot of the events we have planned in person have had to go online. For example, we organized a trick-or-treat event at one of the local elementary schools. We were supposed to go in dressed in costume and talk about healthy treats, but we ended up having to make video clips of ourselves. We were happy to adapt, but obviously would have rather been there in person.”
“Given a program like ACE, I wanted to help inspire student-athletes to be involved as an active member of the community.”
– Sydney Steele, ACE in Place Vietnam 2021
Steele also commented on the difficulties of being a new club name on campus.
“There wasn’t as much participation as we had hoped in the fall, so we’re also trying to improve that. Since we’re new this year, we need to keep getting our name out there and telling people about it.”
All the effort ends up being worth it though, as Steele explains that it’s the relationships she forms with others that keep her going.
“Being able to work with ACE and the Vietnamese college students last summer was just so much fun. I met lifelong friends through ACE, and it’s the same with this organization I’m in now [Cardinal Community]. The organization is just a wholesome group of people, and we get to do what we all care about.”
“I just want to make sure that student-athletes with the mindset of ‘I don’t have time to do community service’ or ‘I don’t have an opportunity to do community service’ do in fact get that opportunity.’”
– Sydney Steele, ACE in Place Vietnam 2021
Steele hopes to help Cardinal Community grow as she moves through Stanford, and also hopes to lower the typical barriers that prevent student-athletes’ from participating in service.
“I just want to make sure that student-athletes with the mindset of ‘I don’t have time to do community service’ or ‘I don’t have an opportunity to do community service’ do in fact get that opportunity.”
She hopes to change others, but implementing her ACE action plan has changed Steele as a person too.
“I’m a very introverted, shy person, so I was always afraid to get myself out there, especially if nobody else wanted to do service with me. I never wanted to do it alone. But doing ACE and finding people I connected with – I still talk to my Vietnamese friends all the time – it was just eye-opening that you don’t have to be scared.”
Steele offers what she has learned from this process, connecting it back to her ACE experience.
“Do what you’re passionate about. If you’re passionate about it, you’ll find a way to pursue it in some way, especially after doing a program like ACE.”