This is the second of a series of stories on award winners from the 2016 Seattle University Athletics Awards Show. Stay tuned to GoSeattleU.com throughout the summer for the remaining stories in this series.
Dance Marathon. Student Executive Council. Ignatian Leaders. Psy Chi. Calcutta Club. Academic mentoring. Office of Multicultural Affairs. Fred Hutchinson. Rowing.
Try to name a place on campus or around the Seattle community that recent graduate Jen Cruz hasn’t been involved at least indirectly. The above list is just a few of her many engagements throughout her four years as a Redhawk, many of which helped her create and form her own personal mission as part of Seattle U’s “empowering leaders for a just and humane world”.
How does she balance it all? The intentionality in the choices of activity as well as the cultivation of her individual personal mission makes it possible.
“It gives you meaning and guides what you’re doing. Without a mission, the things you’re doing and the decisions you’re making aren’t necessarily for any one purpose but with a mission, you’re doing everything to fulfill that.”
Cruz’s life inspiration started nearly 10 years ago when her mother passed away suddenly from cancer. From there, she decided on a career path in the psychology behind oncology patients and their families. Turning an incredibly tough time into opportunity to help and spread hope to others.
The community surrounding her both in her hometown of Wapato, Wash. and now in Seattle also propels her to continue forward.
“I want to succeed because they’ve put a lot of effort into me and I want to be able to show them that it was worth their while.”
It was by chance that Cruz ended up at Seattle U, as her life plan was always to attend the University of Washington but coming from a town of less than 5000 people, a smaller collegiate atmosphere seemed less daunting and made the transition easier. She hasn’t regretted it for a second.
“Seattle U’s hope is for it to be a transformational four years and for each student to be exposed to things they might not have known about before. I’ve been exposed to a lot of things that if I hadn’t come here, I wouldn’t have been exposed to, like social justice issues and now that’s become something important to me. It’s something I didn’t realize was so in line with the values I already held.”
Four years ago, the former competitive bowler looked for a new challenge upon arriving on Capitol Hill and was intrigued by an email she received about a new varsity athletic team. The Seattle University rowing team, previously competing at the club level, was being elevated to the Division I level.
“I was really interested because I had always done sports and it was just a unique opportunity. I didn’t even know what rowing was but I thought ‘Why not try it?’”.
Fast forward four years and Cruz is one of just two originals, alongside fellow recent alum Mariana Osuna, who stayed on the team throughout their entire career. The reasoning comes down to two simple ones – head coach Jenny Park and her teammates.
“Jenny is an amazing coach and it’s been really fun to see how she’s continued to grow as a coach over the past four years. As she’s grown more in confidence, we’ve gotten better. And I just love the team – every year it’s been different and it’s been fun to change the culture from when we first started. It’s been cool to grow as a team – Jenny and us.”
She continues her praise of Park and the team in cultivating her love of rowing.
“There’s no other sport that requires eight people to be completely in sync and if one person backs off, you can pinpoint exactly who it is. It’s taught me a lot about trust and giving your all. And I’ve never had a coach that’s so invested in each person individually regardless if you want to go in and talk about rowing or life. She gives us a lot of grace and allows us to have a really great college experience, one that she’s also really involved in.”
On top of that as a rower, another one of her biggest legacies leaving Seattle University is her participation with Seattle U Dance Marathon, now one of the most successful dance marathons on the West Coast.
Seattle U Dance Marathon (SUDM as it’s affectionately called on and around campus) brings the SU community together to dance for 16 hours while raising money for the Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Uncompensated Care Fund, providing monetary help to those who couldn’t otherwise afford access to treatment. In 2016, the group surpassed their goal, raising over $110,000 FTK or “for the kids”.
“I’ve been a morale captain all four years after my high school camp counselor, the student executive director for SUDM when I came to school, suggested if I were to have one big leadership involvement, then that should be it. It’s amazing, so fun, and I’ve never been so exhausted in my whole life.”
After getting involved early on, she turned the yearly event into an opportunity for team participation and bonding and now the event features a Redhawk Hour, highlighting student-athlete participation. The rowing squad now also always does their highly anticipated annual team dance, this year the full production of the Bella’s finale from Pitch Perfect.
The amount raised is not just a number for Cruz but a part of many stories, one of which became personal.
“During fall quarter of my freshman year, one of my best friends from high school’s little sister died from cancer so all throughout that quarter, I was going over to [Seattle] Children’s and spending a lot of time with their family. It’s amazing to me how much money we can raise as a small school and how much of an impact we can make because my friend’s family received some of the money raised, which brings it even closer to home and to my heart.”
Battling numerous injuries by many key role players, the season didn’t go exactly as the team had hoped and planned prior to the start but the season and her career ended perfectly – albeit anticlimactic – for Cruz.
“Going into our last race at PCRC’s was crazy because it was so last minute and we weren’t sure if we could go, then we got there and our racing time was different than we expected. But it was the best race I could’ve asked to end on. It was just emotionally overwhelming and for other sports, you may have a whole game or match or something that leads up to it. For us, we cross the finish line and we’re done, we put our boat on the trailer, and we leave and that’s the end of our four years. It was so fun though, we crossed the finish line and I think I was already crying.”
Cruz’s immediate plan for the future was almost as far removed as one could imagine from what her original life plan entailed.
“When I came in, I was dead set on graduating from SU with a degree in counseling, moving home, and staying in Yakima.”
She implores incoming college students to keep an open mind, one she eventually developed.
“Whatever you think you’re going to do when you graduate, don’t close yourself off just to that goal. Work towards whatever your end goal is, if you know what you want to do. If you don’t know what you want to do, that’s perfect because you’ll figure it out. I never would’ve guessed I would work at Fred Hutch or be going to India.”
That’s right. That India.
She earned the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship earlier this spring and will now spend most of the next year in India doing qualitative and quantitative research on an app to aid in assessing and treating cancer in rural areas without otherwise access to care. She’s currently in Washington D.C. meeting with other Fulbright recipients and preparing for her trip with conference calls to those she’ll be working with.
Until she leaves this fall, she’s also coaching for Duwamish Rowing Club. Pretty ironic for someone who didn’t even know what rowing was four years ago. But Cruz is nothing if not determined.
She admits the part of SU she’ll miss most is the new family she’s now built and created in Seattle.
“I’m going to miss the people most of all and that goes back to the importance of community for me. I’ve been able to build such a great support system and I have another family that’s situated here and that I know I can always come back and visit. But the weight of moving not just back across the state is not lost on her.
“I’m literally moving to the other side of the world for a year, maybe more, so it’s not as much of an easy transition. I won’t be back for a long time and everything changes while you’re gone.”
One thing won’t change for the 2015-16 Seattle U Athletics Mission Award winner and that is the drive and determination and belief in her “why” that carries her.