Everyday Champion - Sara Natwick
This week’s Everyday Champion is Oregon State golfer Sara Natwick. Natwick grew up learning the game of golf, and currently holds an 80.41 stroke average. She also recently returned from a 10 week study abroad program, helping to distribute health care to under resourced areas in Durbin, South Africa. Sara took a moment to talk about her love for learning, her time at Oregon State and golf for this week’s profile.
Q. What is the best part about being a student-athlete at Oregon State?
I think the best part about being a student-athlete at Oregon State is the sense of community that you develop. Everybody is cheering you on and Corvallis is such a great place to be and everybody is so supportive and you make a lot of friends.
Q. What is the most memorable shot you have ever made?
I was a freshman in high school, and I made a hole in one against our rival school and it was just a great accomplishment.
Q. What is it like to play golf at Oregon State?
Playing golf at Oregon State is absolutely amazing. Our team is just like a big family and our coach is like the mom, she takes care of us. It’s just an incredible experience.
Q. How did you get started playing golf?
I started playing golf because we live on a golf course and my parents encouraged me to play junior golf. And I ended up getting really into it and I fell in love with it.
Q. Tell me about your major and where it is taking you.
My major is biology, with a chemistry minor. I hope to go to pharmacy school and be an infectious disease pharmacist or work in a hospice care facility.
Q. When did you first become interested in that field of study?
My dad is a pharmacist. When we were younger we would go into work with him and I’d see him mixing, and filling orders and talking with patients, and it was just an incredible thing to watch. I just really ended up liking that field.
Q. You recently returned from South Africa. What was that experience like?
Going to South Africa was a very amazing experience. I got to see a third world country, and see how health care services are delivered. So I got to see how doctors, nurses and pharmacists work in that kind of setting.
Q. What was your main focus when you were over there?
It was a service learning experience. So we had to make sure we learned how people operate in an under resourced area, especially in a place where disease is so prevalent.
Q. How did your parents feel about your 10 week trip to Africa?
My parents were very supportive. They just told me to be aware of my surroundings and to make it what you want. You can’t be afraid to say I want to learn about this, I want to do that, and can I help you. And I think that was the best advice they could have given me.
Q. What program did you go on this internship with?
IE3 is the university program that I went with, but it is connected with Child Family International based out of San Francisco. And the main goal of that program is to provide service learning opportunities to people who are pre-med or pre-health, so they can see what it is like in an under resourced area.
Q. What role did you play in your internship?
The role that I played was in a team. We would get broken up into different groups and we just worked together to learn as much as we could and do as many hands on things that we could. We just pushed ourselves to be the best we could be and get the most out of the experience possible.
Q. Do you hope to go back to South Africa?
I really want to go back to that country. I have actually been invited to go back and work and actually assist with the program over there to mentor and teach. I think that I am going to go back.
Q. Would you recommend studying abroad for other students?
Definitely. I think that the area we live in is just a tiny bit of the world and we don’t really get to see how the majority of the world lives and we are very fortunate in this country to have what we have and it is definitely an eye opening experience to go somewhere else and see how people live.
