WEEK #51: EVE B.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

My name is Eve Boulanger, I am a third-year student at the University of Waterloo. I am currently studying Biomedical Engineering and participating in the coop program. I was born in Canada but I moved to Hong Kong when I was four years old and lived there for most of my life. Playing sports is something that I have always been interested in. My main sport for most of my life was soccer, more recently I have become interested in rock climbing. In addition to these sports, I also play or have played lacrosse, golf, touch rugby, field hockey, curling and I enjoy snowboarding and skiing. Next semester, I plan on joining a beginner intramural hockey team to try out a new sport. I am also involved in Engineers Without Borders, I am currently working on a number of web designs projects and collaborating with external non-profit organizations to make a difference in the community. My hobbies include traveling, crafts, and food.

What elements of leadership parallel your sport and life leadership?

Sports taught me a lot about leadership in the real world. I developed many of my leadership skills from playing sports. In soccer, I often played in center back which meant that I needed to clearly communicate to the team throughout each game. Practicing my communication in the game of soccer helped my communication skills in the real world. Additionally, playing sports allowed me to gain collaboration skills and understand how to build trust in a team. This is extremely important in all aspects of life. Without effective collaboration and trust, it is much harder for teams to work together and achieve their goals.

What is a non-sport goal you have achieved you are proud of? How did you achieve your goal?

A non-sport goal that I had was to complete a ‘magic mirror’ project. This project used skills that were useful in my engineering program and, at first, seemed very interesting. The project continued to drag on and I started to lose motivation. However, I persevered because I knew how accomplished I would feel when the project was complete. I knew I was close to

the finish line, or in the last few minutes of a game. In sports, this is when you need to push yourself the hardest and that is what I did with this project. I completed the magic mirror and it turned out very well.

What advice do you have for parents, coaches, or sport administrators to improve inclusion in sport?

Every person is different, providing support is not one size fits all. Parents, coaches, and sports administrators need to understand each person on the team and coach them individually to the best of their abilities. This means providing feedback and comments in a way that they know the team member will be receptive to.

5 words that best describe me are:

DRIVEN | CARING | CONFIDENT | ORGANIZED | ENTHUSIASTIC