Kim Slade

About Me:

I am a graduate student studying Sports Leadership at Northeastern University (NU). I was a student-athlete at Northeastern for four years and received my bachelor’s degree from NU in spring of 2018.

I then began pursuing the master’s program online at the end of 2018 and hope to graduate in summer of 2020.

In addition to my studies, I am currently a soccer coach and part-time substitute teacher at a private school in Massachusetts.I have also trained soccer athletes in one-on-one and small group settings.

Previously, I worked at Boston Children’s Hospital in administration and at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in their fundraising department. While at DFCI I helped raise $10,000 for cancer research and ran for the Dana-Farber team in the 2018 Boston Marathon.

Overcoming Obstacles

It was three months before my first day of Division I preseason soccer. I was at a national camp in New Jersey and we were finishing up our last game of the day. With a couple minutes left to play, I went into a slide tackle hard and felt an immediate pop. I walked off in pain and pushed it aside even though deep down I knew something wasn’t right. It wasn’t until a week later that I found out I broke my leg and needed surgery.

This news was devastating to me and happened at a really unfortunate time in my playing career; I had hoped that I would go into college feeling ready to play and at my absolute best. Instead, I spent months in the training room and on the sidelines. The physical battle didn’t even begin to compare to the mental toll this took on me. I had never suffered any injury before, and it took me years to regain my confidence.

I have always been hard on myself, so when I couldn’t give what was asked of me, I felt like I wasn’t doing my part or meeting expectations. Regardless, I never gave up. Even after suffering numerous injuries in college, all of which kept me from playing the sport I loved, I knew I had a purpose at Northeastern. There are so many positives that I learned to take away from the obstacles.

I was a full-scholarship athlete at NU and built an incredible relationship with my coaches and teammates. I am still in contact with them today and owe all of them much of my success. I was a 3-time CAA champion and was selected as a captain by my peers; this reminded me that I showed leadership qualities both on the field and on the sidelines. I made a conscious choice to focus on doing what I could to help the team instead of dwelling on my own problems.

I graduated NU with an incredible education and two co-ops, or six-month internships; one was at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and one was with Boston Children’s Hospital and their Injury Prevention Center. With all of this being said, the number one most important lesson I learned was to persevere through mental and physical battles. We all have them, and they will come in different forms and at different times. If we as athletes, coaches, teammates, leaders, parents, and communities support one another and find ways to take care of ourselves, we can get through anything.