People story | July 2024 | Read time: 2min
Serving Success: Paralympics to Deloitte
As a Paralympian, I like to educate people about the Paralympic Games. For example, the term “Para” in Paralympics doesn’t mean “part of” or “to help,” it means parallel. As in the Paralympic Games are parallel, competing around the same time and in the same format as the Olympic Games.
It’s a great parallel, no pun intended, for how I feel as a U.S. Paralympian athlete, and as a professional at Deloitte. My experience or the way I go about things might look different, but it’s the same effort, same skill level required. Just done a little differently.
In 2022, I applied for a marketing internship for the first time in my life. It was a rotational role at Deloitte that I got connected with through my role with the U.S. Paralympic Sitting volleyball team and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), and I took a step off the professional volleyball court and into marketing. While I was still playing professionally and coaching in my free time, it was a big shift. I was used to doing my work in a gym in workout clothes. Now, I felt like I had to buy a whole new wardrobe and re-learn to tie a tie.
And in this role, just like my role as coach or outside hitter on the court, it’s important for me to be treated just the same as my able-bodied colleagues. I was born with amniotic band syndrome which left me without fingers on my left hand.
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing being a disabled person out in the world. Deloitte has been blowing my expectations out of the water in terms of what inclusion can look like. Seeing investments in the inclusion space within the organization, like our internal inclusive language webinars, attending those sessions alongside so many colleagues who care, is moving.
It’s amazing for me to see the commitment to treating all people here equitably while making room for our individuality. I have a feeling of belonging at Deloitte I wasn’t always expecting to feel. The way my team and Deloitte supports me allows me to be a better professional, and an even better athlete.
Being a Jack-of-All-Trades Pays Off
When I’m not working or playing Sitting volleyball myself, you can find me coaching. It’s something I’m so passionate about and have been doing for years at various levels. Men’s college and professional volleyball isn’t all that well funded. My teams don’t have a huge staff so as coach, I’m likely wearing every hat you can imagine supporting the team. We get scrappy to make it work.
I feel that experience has helped me at Deloitte and I really love my current role as a Client Account Manager. It gives me an amazing opportunity to see the breadth of Deloitte, all the different aspects that make up the organization. I play a dozen different roles on any given day. In sports terms, I play the role of sports information director, athletic trainer and bus driver all in one for my account. I’m talking to my teams, leaders and sometimes the clients, to keep things moving forward.
Having the experience in sports has certainly impacted my ability to succeed in this role, and I feel like Deloitte saw the value of that experience as well.
