It takes grit, hard work and dedication to thrive as a student athlete.
With Saturday marking National Student-Athlete Day, we are featuring two college juniors who are standout student athletes, exceling on the field and in the classroom.
Lilly Enes attends Yale University, where she is setting records as a sprinter on the track team. Competing in the 60-meter, 100-meter, 200-meter, 400-meter and 4X400 relay races, she has set two school records already this season. Lilly says that takes a lot of dedication to her team and to her schoolwork, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’m so lucky I get to do what I love (running) with people on my team who share the same passions, standards, and values as I do,” she says.
Lilly is a Political Science major and completed an internship last summer at Randle Communications. We enjoyed having her on our team where she says the skills she learned come in handy with her intense training and collegiate schedule.
“My internship really helped me with my time management skills. I became really good at allocating my time and prioritizing projects. It’s a critical skill to ensure I get all my studying and homework done while training. Developing time management skills has helped me stay on top of all my work, while also allowing me to give my all in everything I do.”
A typical day for Lilly includes classes until the mid-afternoon, followed by three hours of training and then homework. Factor in her travel schedule for competing in away-meets, and it’s even more shocking that she is setting records!
Lilly has traveled to Boston, New York, New Jersey and North Carolina for track meets, and she heads to Alabama later this month. Lilly has three younger sisters, and occasionally her family comes to watch her compete, which is very meaningful to her.
Lilly is looking forward to her upcoming summer internship at Charles Schwab where she will be tackling financial crime risk management, but says she misses Randle dearly, especially our “fun Fridays.”
“One of my best memories at Randle was on Fridays when we would play music, specifically the Shrek soundtrack, and everyone would sing along.”
We miss her, too, and wish her the best on her future endeavors.
Jake Randle, son of CEO Jeff Randle, has practically grown up in the Randle offices and has spent a lot of time with the Randle team over the years.
He is a scrum-half* on the rugby team at the University of Notre Dame, where he is a finance major in the Mendoza College of Business.
Being on any rugby team can be intense, and the Notre Dame team is no exception. Jake says he is quite busy tackling his academic coursework along with practice, workouts, games and tournaments. Rugby has a fall and a spring season, requiring him to travel about 60% of the time.
He says although he is fortunate to be pursuing his passion as a student athlete, it is much more than that.
“I am competing at a high level across the country, but it is also helping me develop my work ethic and leadership skills. Knowing that I have to plan my academics and other extracurriculars around my athletic obligations adds structure to my life.”
He adds rugby provides an outlet for his natural competitive spirit, while also helping him develop important relationships.
“All of the coaches and trainers for the rugby team at Notre Dame are fantastic, which is a large part of why my experience has been so special.”
The Randle family is dedicated to Jake’s rugby career and makes concerted efforts to travel to South Bend a few times each season to watch him play. He notes it’s convenient that rugby season lines up with football season, so his family can fly out to watch him play rugby and get in a Notre Dame football game on the same weekend. Jake also travels to the west coast fairly often to compete against California schools and his family is usually able to make trips around the state to watch him play.
Jake will temporarily hang up his rugby cleats this summer to work as a Capital Deployment intern at the largest public real estate investment trust in the world, Prologis. He will be working directly with investment officers, focusing on financial analysis of developments and acquisitions, among many other things.
“I am very excited for this opportunity and I am eager to gain invaluable industry-relevant experience with top professionals.”
We are excited for his summer opportunity and look forward to watching him throw around the pitch in the fall.
*A scrum-half is the player who directs the game and works with the stand-off player to control the attach and decide with their passes how the team attacks and if, when and where the ball is kicked. This player is also responsible for making sure all the other players are in the right position for an attacking move.