Studying and playing water polo in the US is a mind-blowing experience. I have been living in New York on campus at Wagner College, Staten Island since early 2018. Despite missing my family and friends terribly because there is no place like Sydney, being in New York enables me to catch a ferry over to Manhattan and have city adventures most weekends, then train and study hard throughout the week. It’s not easy, but it is amazing. We train for 3.5 hours every morning, both in the pool and in the gym, which they call ‘Lift’. We get Tuesday mornings off, so the team all go out for dinner on Monday nights.
 
I am really enjoying the study as we all do Liberal Arts in Year 1 which involves subjects like Evolution and trips to the Natural History Museum. The great opportunities I have been offered come from the ability to travel and make great friends with people from all across the world. We might fly to Michigan University or travel to Harvard, Princeton, Brown or Villanova and stay for a few nights while we compete against other college teams over the weekend.

Water polo has been a bag of surprises and opportunities since I started playing in Year 7. My family call me the ‘accidental champion’ because it was never a plan to end up in NYC at 18 studying and playing water polo. I always kept the water polo door open and took each opportunity as it came. Now I have travelled extensively around Australia with my Sydney Northern Beaches club team, toured Europe with the U19 Australian Squad, played in Hawaii, at Pan Pacs, and with the Australian Schoolgirl’s team in New Zealand.

The education you receive at Queenwood is like no other; you only fully realise the extent of this when you graduate. The structure, the care, the mutual respect, the discussion and interaction in the class room and the time teachers spend helping is what sets it apart.  Everyone tried hard at sport and participated, and nobody judged if you were good or not. My favourite memory is Saturday morning water polo games in the Queenwood pool. My grandparents and family would come down with their coffee and watch the games. We had a huge crowd of teachers, friends and family cheering us on.