Kayla Duke, pre-nursing sophomore, is at home on the softball field. She’s been playing since she was nine years old.
Duke has been a pitcher for the IUS softball team for two years, and said she loves it.
“It’s a great experience to play in college because I’ve always wanted to pursue that,” Duke said.
Playing softball at IU Southeast is a time-demanding and rigorous opportunity. A player for the team will be kept busy from August to November in the fall semester and through the spring semester.
“It’s basically like a full-time job, but it is fun at the same time,” Duke said. “So it’s not as bad as a job.”
Such an intensive and crazy process certainly produces changes.
“[I am] learning to overcome obstacles and really finding out who I am as a person,” Duke said.
One major obstacle for Duke is figuring out how to juggle the intense softball schedule with her equally busy school schedule.
Duke has her priorities laid out for herself.
“School is more important than anything else,” she said.
She is currently applying for the IUS Nursing program. Applying for this program involves quite a bit of work, including taking a general knowledge and personality test. Duke is nervous as she awaits the results.
Originally, Duke came in as a psychology major, but she decided to switch recently.
“I decided I wanted to be a nursing major because I shadowed some nurses,” Duke said. “I just applied a month ago and I won’t find out until July.”
She said she would love to work with children as a nurse. Working with children has been a consideration for Duke for a while. She said she originally considered being a teacher, but decided that job would be too many kids at once. Nursing provides an opportunity to interact with children one-on-one.
Duke also said she loves the outdoors, hiking and playing with her dog. She is active and has been involved in various sports for years, but softball is always what she comes back to.
“It’s more of a team [sport],” Duke said. “As a pitcher, all I can do is strike them out, I can’t get runs on the board. So I have to depend on my team.”
Team captain, secondary education senior Brooke Martin, stressed Duke’s own teamwork with IUS softball.
“If you need work on things after practice, she will be the first to volunteer to stay and help,” Martin said. “As a senior and a team captain, I start a lot of cheers in the dugout. Duke is the first one to stand up on the bench and scream at the top of her lungs. In my opinion, Duke is one of the most dedicated people on the team.”
Duke said she hopes to continue with softball throughout her time at IU Southeast, but she realizes that acceptance into the nursing program would mean a more rigorous academic schedule.
She said she is willing to try it out and take on the challenge, but she knows that if her grades start dropping she needs to be willing to sacrifice softball for academic success.
Duke currently leads the IUS softball team with eight wins and 68 strikeouts on the season.
By MICHELE HOP
Staff Writer
mhop@umal.us.edu