Zoë Lam: Soccer star turned sports reporter

BY ASHTYN HANSARD

Digital Media Director

For most students, transferring to a new college right before your senior year can be a terrifying thought. However, Zoë Lam, a senior journalism major, did not let this stop her from achieving her goals.

Although she is a Dallas native, Lam grew up in Wyoming and attended grade school there. Once she graduated, she attended the University of Texas at San Antonio for three years before moving to Stephenville.

As for Lam’s reason for transferring, it was pretty simple.

“Wyoming is pretty cold, so I just needed a change of scenery… It was tough being away from my family and everything, but a good change and good change of weather, too,” Lam said.

Before becoming a student at Tarleton State University, Lam was enrolled at UTSA and was a student there for three years. After being asked to transfer to play soccer for Tarleton’s team, Lam accepted. Since UTSA is a much larger school than Tarleton, it was easy to wonder how the two colleges compare.

While both schools are in Texas, Lam says that the two schools are very different.

“I think that being at Tarleton is much more of a family community,” Lam says. “At UTSA, it was a commuter school, so everybody just drove in from wherever. Nobody was really on campus and having events like every other day here.”

Even though Lam ended up loving Tarleton once she got here, she still had some concerns about transferring. Moving to a new school is always nerve wracking, but doing it as a senior in college is a whole new level.

Lam had several concerns, some out of her control.

“I was worried about transferring for just one year, if I was even gonna get picked up.

Then I was worried about losing credits,” Lam said. “I think it was definitely rough. Moving from somewhere I’ve been for three years just to go somewhere for a year was definitely something I was worried about, along with making new friends and all that kind of stuff for a year.”

Although she was skeptical, Lam’s concerns quickly vanished once she got to Stephenville.

You may be wondering why anyone would transfer during their last year of college, but Lam had a pretty good reason: soccer.

Lam, while still living in Wyoming, grew up playing soccer and falling in love with the sport. When she got older, she dabbled in other sports, such as volleyball and track, but none captured her heart the same way soccer did.

When Lam realized how serious she was about soccer, she put more time and investment into her abilities, even going as far as driving two and a half hours to Colorado from Wyoming five days a week to attend practice.

Once she was accepted into UTSA, Lam continued her passion for the sport by joining the soccer team. After her junior year, Lam decided to transfer over to become a part of Tarleton’s soccer team. She doesn’t regret a second of it.

“I love the team here. They’re so great,” Lam said. “I knew some of the girls from when I played in Colorado—a bunch of them are here—so I knew them already. Everybody’s so welcoming, and it’s just so good to be a part of a team that really wants to be a team.”

Being a student athlete while attending college can be extremely difficult, especially when you factor in internships and looking at graduate schools.

With having to schedule classes around practice and make sure all of the homework is getting done, it seems like a nearly impossible task. Lam struggled with this task her first year of college but has since made it work for her.

“As I’ve grown up, it’s a lot of time management and just scheduling. It’s pretty crazy because we have to schedule our classes between,” Lam said. “You just gotta manage your work-life balance.”

Along with her love for sports, Lam has decided to pursue a career in journalism with an interest in sports communication.

When creating the J-TAC’s sports edition, two of Lam’s profile pieces were featured, discussing Steve Uryasz and Victoria Cameron. This was the first time Lam’s work had been published in Tarleton’s newspaper. Lam was honored to have her work featured in the student newspaper.

“Seeing my stuff in there for the first time, I was just so shocked and grateful.

It’s cool to not just be an athlete – people can now see that I can actually do something outside of my sport, too. That’s something I am so passionate about, just being able to represent off the field as well,” Lam said.

Lam’s accomplishments in her journalism studies paid off well. Lam received multiple offers from graduate schools and even received a job offer to work as a news writer. While she turned down the job, Lam accepted a graduate program and will be a student at Arizona State University (ASU) starting in the fall.

When discussing Lam’s initial interest in journalism, she couldn’t pinpoint the exact time she realized her decision to be a journalist.

“I went into college wanting to do education and then, obviously, sports is like my whole life. I decided that I’m gonna get super involved at my university, and I’m gonna tell the stories for the people. Then I really narrowed down on journalism because… I just couldn’t leave sports, and then I found out I loved to tell stories about people, and it just worked out,” Lam said.

While Lam’s writing is great for any story, she’s got a special interest in sports stories and profile pieces. Her love of sports from an early age and her interest in people’s lives help fuel her love for journalism, even when it gets hard.

After she graduates from ASU with her master’s degree in sports journalism, Lam hopes to work in the broadcast industry despite the fact that it’s a tough field to get into.

“The dream job would be to be a sideline broadcaster for some random sports team,” Lam said. “I would love to just be on the sideline with everybody, still stay involved in sports and just do the post-game interviews and that kind of thing.”

Although Lam has only been able to be at Tarleton for a year, she’s been able to build great connections with both the residents of Stephenville and the town itself. Her favorite part of Tarleton is the community.

“There’s always something going on, and it’s always bringing the community together, too,” Lam said. “Regardless of where you go in Stephenville, somebody’s gonna have a Tarleton shirt on, and you’re gonna connect because you’re wearing purple together.”

Moving to Tarleton was quite a new experience for Lam, but it turned out to be a great one. However, there are some things she wished she knew before college, one of them being to just say “yes.”

“Always say yes to new experiences, always say yes to a job interview and always say yes to your friends for going out or something like that. Just get yourself involved and take it all in because it goes by so fast,” Lam said.

Lam’s time at Tarleton also taught her some valuable lessons to carry with herself throughout life.

“Always bet on yourself,” Lam said. “At the end of the day you are the person you talk to the most. You gotta put yourself first, and if you don’t like the direction that you’re going in, then change it.”

When going to a smaller college like Tarleton, it’s expected that someone is going to make an impact on your life. Whether it’s a professor, an adviser or a classmate, someone or something is going to leave a lasting impression.

Lam had multiple people create a positive impact, her main ones being her team and her communications professor, Austin Lewter.

“Obviously, my team and my coaches have been huge, just coming in and accepting me as who I am,” Lam said. “It was also nice having everybody try and lead me in the right direction, and Lewter helped out a lot – he got me a job offer.”

Lewter has been a professor at Tarleton for several years and instructs many of the journalism classes that are offered. He’s also the main adviser for the J-TAC and was the one to suggest putting two of Lam’s stories in the paper.

After only knowing Lam for one school year, Lewter was impressed by her work ethic and drive to write a good story.

“She’s a great student and does impeccable work. She keeps her stuff straight,” Lewter said. “I think that discipline of being a student athlete and an honor student and all these things going on will help her. She knows how to be successful, and she’s a complete pleasure.”

While he’s only seen a glimpse at her talent of news writing, Lewter is certain she’s going to be an excellent journalist.

“She’s just one of those individuals that’s gonna excel at whatever she does,” Lewter said. “It would not surprise me if we turn on a network sporting event one of these days and see her on the sideline doing player interviews. I really feel like she’s one of these students that we’re gonna be able to say, ‘Man, we knew her back then,’” Lewter said.