Thank you to the Harvard Varsity Club for this prestigious honor. I am humbled to be in the company of such outstanding student-athletes and my fellow inductees (including my Cabot House roommate, Judy Collins Larkee!). When thinking back on my Harvard Athletics experience, the lifelong lessons learned and the friendships forged were just as significant as the matches and titles won. If I could include a video with my essay, I would play the 2012 viral video of the Harvard Baseball team covering “Call Me Maybe.” This video not only touched me with its impeccable choreography, but it also spurred many fond memories of bonding with the tennis team. I remember the camaraderie of road trips in the crimson van where we played DJ with the radio, worked on problem sets under headlamps, and celebrated winning the Ivy League Championships. One of the many things that our Head Coach, Gordon Graham, preached was how Harvard Athletics would train us for the “real world.” As a 17-year-old entering college, his advice did not seem relevant to me at that time. Almost twenty years later, I can now see vividly how my experience as a Harvard student-athlete prepared me for life after college. As every fellow inductee knows well, athletics teach you about dedication, discipline, setting and achieving goals, and overcoming adversity. I was familiar with pushing my physical and mental limits while competing on the national junior tennis circuit before college. Upon stepping foot into Harvard Yard, I would soon learn what it truly would take to become a successful student-athlete – an entity sometimes more student or more athlete, but always intertwined. In order to maintain excellence in the lives we lived on each side of the Charles River, we student-athletes had to juggle multiple priorities. I remember pulling an all-nighter to finish a paper while on the road and then playing a deliriously amazing match afterwards. I also remember taking final exams with a proctor in a hotel room at the NCAA Championships. The professors and teaching fellows were no less demanding on us for our hours spent at practice, nor did our opponents take it easy on us for our academic workload. Another aspect that Harvard Athletics educated me on was teamwork. In the sport of tennis, there isn’t the thrill of passing the ball to a teammate to score the winning goal. While tennis is generally an individual sport, in the collegiate format it is a team sport. Each match (singles and doubles) contributes to the overall team score, so you win or lose as a team. Each player must work together toward the common goal of winning, and the energy of the team carries momentum throughout all the matches. Coach Gordon and our Assistant Coach (1995-1997), Ryu Iwai, trained us to carry ourselves in a positive manner on the court, whether in practice or in competition, for positive (or negative) energy is infectious. We learned to lead by example, especially when we became upperclassmen, communicate effectively, and support each other. It’s no wonder that people often compare team efforts in sports to the world of business; these tenets are applicable to any group setting. An athletic story would not be complete if it were not for challenge or setback before all the glory. Our Assistant Coach (1997-1999), Jennifer Callen Beveridge, inspired me to have positive determination and motivated me to bounce back from a torn rotator cuff. Coach Jen has the uncanny ability of positively pushing players to achieve their maximum potential, overcoming mental and physical barriers. She made the exceptional transition from a great player in her own right to a great coach. Great coaches can take a diverse group of people and form a cohesive team; they make the whole more powerful than the sum of the individual parts. I aspire to bring out the best in people like Coach Jen does. There was a network of coaches, captains, teammates, roommates, friends, and alumni who helped me along the way. I am extremely appreciative of the team’s coaches – Gordon Graham, Ryu Iwai, and Jennifer Callen Beveridge, the Friends of Harvard Tennis, as well as the Department of Athletics for providing me the opportunity to contribute to the rich tradition of the Harvard tennis team. I would like to especially thank my family: my father, Tom, for introducing me to this lifelong sport (the story goes he swung his first racquet in sandals at a picnic); my mother, Charlene, for selflessly supporting me in the journey; and my sister, Eva (Class of ’06), for “following in my footsteps” but still letting me win from time to time. I am forever grateful to my husband, Matt Roghair, who, although has only experienced Harvard Athletics through my glory stories and the Harvard-Yale football games, is incredibly supportive of all my athletic (and non-athletic) endeavors. Go Crimson!