`Runner at heart

How one alumna was impacted by the Roadrunner Scholarship Fund

By California State University, Bakersfield

June 11^th, 2020

“I’m not really sure I would be doing this (master’s) degree and working in this program right now without my scholarship in undergrad,” said Sydney Haynes, California State University, Bakersfield alumna, former beach and indoor volleyball player and Roadrunner Scholarship Fund recipient, as she recalled her time at the university.

Prior to her time at CSUB, Haynes had never heard of Bakersfield, nor had she visited.

When Haynes made it to her senior year of high school, she hadn’t committed to a college yet. That is, until a few of the volleyball coaches from CSUB saw her play at a tournament during her senior year.

The coaches wanted to help her improve her sport, as she was raw and inexperienced compared to some players, since she’d started playing volleyball later on in life.

Being from Vancouver, WA, Bakersfield was quite the opposite of what Haynes was used to. It always rains in Washington, while Bakersfield is known for its heat. She was from a smaller city, while Bakersfield was bigger and in California. It was also her first time away from home.

“It was definitely an adjustment, but I feel like Bakersfield’s such a homey place and I felt really welcomed,” she said. “When I first got there, I think I just got extremely lucky, because I had upperclassmen who were welcoming.”

Haynes described her time at CSUB and the athletics program as being “really family-oriented,” which is something that not a lot of other universities have, due to sports teams sticking to their own or the campuses being too large to stay connected. She credited that to the support system of the athletics program.

At CSUB, she was able to get to know other fellow student-athletes from other teams, coaches from other teams, the athletic directors and trainers. It’s a close-knit group.

Aside from playing a sport she loved and winning two WAC championships with the volleyball team, her freshman and senior years, Haynes also considers graduating at the top of her class, as well as being named the kinesiology student of the year, as top accomplishments during her college career.

“It proved that, while I was an athlete, I was committed to my academics,” she said, as athletes tend to get a bad rap when it comes to their education.

Of course, that didn’t come without its own set of challenges.

One of those challenges was finding the balance between keeping relationships with her teammates strong, focusing on the team and giving them all she could to help make the team better, along with taking care of herself and what she needed to do well.

“I grew so much as a leader at CSUB, and I give so much thanks to them for all of their help, for helping me get where I am, especially Coach G,” Haynes said, referring to volleyball coach, Giovana Melo.

“She strived to excel in every aspect of her life. She put in so much passion and dedication to academics and the volleyball program,” Melo said of Haynes.

Haynes also made sure to take advantage of every opportunity presented to her, which included working for an elementary school and helping out with research study, which made for a full plate.

“I knew I had to set myself up for the future as well.”

She continued that mentality as she works towards her master’s degree. After graduating CSUB, Haynes took a year off and worked in a physical therapy clinic, where she was able to get the hours she needed to apply to grad school. Currently, Haynes is in the process of getting her master’s degree at California State University Dominguez Hills in prosthetics and orthotics.

She has also been working with Angel City Sports, playing volleyball with disabled youth, who can’t compete in the sport in the traditional sense, teaching them how to hit over the net and how to pass the ball, then the leaders will join them in playing.

“Seeing her pursue her dreams to work in prosthetics and now working seeing it come true for her is incredibly inspiring and very rewarding,” Melo said.

“In all honesty, I don’t think I would have had the opportunity to go to a bigger school, go to California to play, to get the education I did, to have the experiences that I did without my scholarship,” Haynes said. “It completely changed who I am and made me the person I am today.”

“I don’t know if they know–They’re making huge changes in people’s lives, especially mine,” she said of the donors who contribute to the Roadrunner Scholarship Fund.

Receiving a scholarship from the Roadrunner Scholarship Fund in her undergrad was a key motivating factor in taking her education to the next level with her master’s degree. If she had graduated from CSUB with that extra debt, it would have been hard to commit to the program she’s currently in.