First of all, are you still playing water polo and did you play in college?
I played varsity water polo at Brown University all through college, and just graduated in May 2014. I haven’t been playing much polo since I graduated, other than a few alumni water polo games. I played for 8 years (high school and college), so it’s nice to take a little break now!
Do you have a favorite memory from when you played on Stanford?
I have a few! I definitely really enjoyed all the long trips to Southern California, since it was so fun to get to hang out with my teammates 24/7. One year at JO’s in Pasadena, my 16’s team got 3rd place in Gold division, which was pretty exciting for all of us. Another funny memory was when the 7th Harry Potter book was released during a team trip to LA, and everyone was begging our coaches to drive us to the store and buy the book, but they told us we had to wait until the tournament was over so we wouldn’t lose focus. We had a big 9-hour bus trip home to Stanford, and the entire bus was reading the book all together, which was pretty cool.
What college did you go to and what was your major?
I went to Brown University and studied Applied Math-Biology with a focus in Neuroscience. Basically just studied how we can use math to understand more about the brain, which sounds crazy but I really enjoyed it!
Also, did you keep in touch with any of your club teammates?
Oh yeah! I actually live in San Francisco now with two roommates, and both played with me at Stanford! (Kat Booher and Danielle Carlson). My high school and college water polo teams also had a few other Stanford girls, including Olivia Santiago, Shameem Jamil, June Afshar and Skylar Dorosin–I’ve known them for years and still keep in touch with them all the time! My younger twin sisters still play Stanford club (on the 18’s team), so I obviously stay in touch with them too 😛
Finally, I just wanted to thank you for letting me ask you these questions.
You’re very welcome! Let me know if you have any other questions! Hope you have a great season this summer 🙂
All the best,
Malaika