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How Moving to Collingwood Helped Nadine's Childhood Dream Come True
How Moving to Collingwood Helped Nadine's Childhood Dream Come True

Nadine came to Collingwood School late in her academic journey after moving to Vancouver from Toronto as a young teen. While her academic passions evolved throughout high school, her dream of playing field hockey at Stanford remained consistent. 

The 2024 Collingwood graduate has been a gifted multi-sport athlete her whole life– in gymnastics, basketball, golf, volleyball, soccer, tennis, and field hockey. In fact, at the age of 12 she was ranked 2nd in Ontario for tennis in her age group but it was field hockey that would become Nadine’s passion.

In her first year playing field hockey, Nadine was chosen to play at the national level. Since then, she’s earned two National Championship titles playing for the U16 and U18 Team BC and has competed for Canada in three international tours. 

With a very bright future in field hockey on the horizon, Nadine’s choice to join Collingwood in Grade 10 would also arm her with the academic challenge she needed to continue her field hockey career at a top-rated university – specifically, Stanford.

“I had these goals about what I wanted to do in the future, and I knew Collingwood would support them,” Nadine tells us.

Nadine’s first conversations with her University Guidance (UG) counselor, Ms. Rachel Davidson, emphasized this. Ms. Davidson helped Nadine acclimate to her rigorous course load at Collingwood while balancing the pressures of sports. Being able to manage academics and high-performance athletics is a skill that many student-athletes struggle with. 

“There were definitely moments where it was stressful,” Nadine says. “I had workout sessions at the Richmond Olympic Oval that I had to get up at 4:45am for, then drive back to West Van for school.” Time management became key.

When it came time to look at her university options, Nadine started early. She zeroed in on Stanford for both its academic and field hockey opportunities. To keep her focused, Nadine printed out an image of the Stanford logo and taped it to her wall.

When a student has dreams of playing in the NCAA, their university application process can be quite different. Not only do they need to find the school that is the best fit for them academically, but they also need to do the work to determine if the school’s athletics program and team will support their goals. Luckily, Nadine’s coaches and UG counselor helped her navigate the world of collegiate sports.

Part of this was going to field hockey “showcases” where dozens of prospective student-athletes show off their skills to college recruiters and coaches. 

“Going into these camps, I learned to contact coaches in advance and put myself on their radar,” Nadine tells us.

But with Stanford, she couldn’t seem to get in contact with the field hockey coaches. Regardless, Nadine attended a Stanford “identification camp” where she would only have a couple hours to prove she deserved the last spot on the team, alongside a cohort of the best young field hockey players in the world.

After she’d played her absolute best in front of the coaches, she approached them to introduce herself.

“The coach said she already knew who I was,” Nadine says. “Then she asked if I had the grades to get into Stanford.”

Back at Collingwood, Nadine remained focused on her studies, especially business and life sciences. 

“As much as I was focused on business, I was also drawn toward understanding why and how the body works, so I decided I wanted to pursue a mix of these two subjects,” says Nadine.

“AP Psychology and Anatomy and Physiology aren’t courses high schools are required to offer,” she adds “but because I could take them at Collingwood, they evoked a whole new love for learning for me and completely shifted my career plans.”

“I knew that Collingwood would support my post-secondary ambitions through its academic opportunities, and through the value they place on sports and support for student-athletes,” Nadine says. “The ensuing network of support that I was offered, coupled with the depth of programming, gave me all the tools that I needed to make my dreams come true.”

And those they did. In February 2023, Nadine committed to become a Stanford Cardinal.

As she prepares to begin at Stanford in the fall, Nadine is reflecting on all the support of her Collingwood coaches and teachers, and notes that she’s immensely grateful both her parents supported her journey to Collingwood. 

“From my perspective, hard work is so rewarding,” Nadine smiles. “Honestly, sometimes you can be talented, but having actual passion for something and hard work goes a long way. You can actually accomplish anything.”
 

Grad 2023 Profiles