Her freshman year, she may have signed a poster, smiled and moved on to the next youngster. By her senior year, she was starting conversations. She always understood the fan base just wanted to know a little more about the players they were watching – feel like they really knew who they were – and now, she was turning the tables. She not only became comfortable with sharing about herself, but also in taking a genuine interest in who approached her.
Pushing aside all of her academic and athletic achievements, Oleksak believes that change was her greatest accomplishment in four years.
“That happened, kind of without me knowing it,” she said. “Looking back now, it’s like that’s cool that I tried new things. I pride myself on that. I made my experience at CSU really great.”
Adding to her plate early on was not easy for her, as she had to learn to balance her life as volleyball required a large piece of the pie. Before long, she was a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee on campus and an active participant in Rambition, a student-athlete group with a goal of empowering young women.
She learned to create time for the outside world. She took part in youth volleyball camps and Ram Welcome, helping incoming freshmen move into the dorms. She stood with CSUnite, a march against campus hate. She visited elementary schools, Ram Jam and loved the fact the volleyball team adopted Sara Robinson through the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation.
She took part in Night to Shine, a special needs prom through the Tim Tebow Foundation and helped with Cans Around the Oval. On a personal level, she went skiing for the first time, and she found Mill City Church, which aided in her growth.
She was quiet there at first. Eventually, she started meeting people, some of them other CSU athletes. She joined Bible study groups, initially nervous to pray out loud. By the end, she was leading college Bible studies.
It was there when she met Skipworth, who is an assistant to the head pastor and helps with the various Bible studies. The two are the same age, so they struck a bond. Skipworth told Oleksak she was going to one of her matches, and while Oleksak was happy to have her in the crowd, she sort of buried the lede on what was about to happen.
It was the night Oleksak broke the CSU assists record. For Skipworth, that was normal for Oleksak, and a prime reason why the church valued her as a parishioner.
“Katie really cares about her environment and people around her and however everybody else is. What I’ve noticed about Katie is she just makes people feel good and safe. Before she even speaks a word, her presence makes other people feel welcome,” Skipworth said. “Any space she was in, like when she was at Mill City being a leader, she made people feel comfortable. In the aspect of her community, she really cares about more than just being an athlete, she wants to be a well-rounded individual. She cares about people and their emotional health, like somebody wants to listen to them and understand them. She really invests her time outward as opposed to just being successful and goal-oriented. That’s a huge part of her, but she really cares about people and really making other people feel she cares and wants to invest time in them.”
That gift is what led Oleksak down the path to wanting to become a nurse, reaching an initial step by becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant. Helping people brings her joy, even if it was a smile at the end of bringing a patient a cup of ice water.
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Oleksak Branched Out in Her Time at Colorado State - CSURams.com
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