This feature originally appeared in the Summer edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.



Kristen Vredeveld would be the first to admit that she struggled her freshman year.  As a member of the Cal women's swimming & diving team, her times didn't measure up to her standards, she fell short of expectations, and she missed out on qualifying for the national championship meet.
 
But over the next three years, Vredeveld dug down deep and emerged as an NCAA scorer, a Scholar All-American, a team captain and an honors graduate with her degree in history. Along the way, she rediscovered her passion for swimming, forged lifelong and meaningful relationships, and perhaps most importantly, learned how to lead.
 
Now, following two years working with Teach for America in Atlanta, she is heading off to law school at Boston University armed with a Pac-12 Postgraduate Scholarship and planning to concentrate in international humanitarian law.
 
Back in Vredeveld's first season at Cal in 2013-14, such aspirations would have appeared to be outside her immediate realm of possibility. While she arrived in Berkeley from Chattanooga, Tennessee, with an impressive set of credentials – 16 state championships and the national 15-16 age-group record in the 50-yard freestyle – she ranked no higher than eighth-best on the team in any individual event by the end of the year.
 
"When I was being recruited, my best times should have been making NCAAs and being one of the key people on relays," Vredeveld said. "By the time of my senior year of high school and the beginning of my freshman year, I was not training at that level. I wasn't racing at that level. While I was in high school, I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, when I get to college, things will turn around.' And of course, they only turn around when you work at them. I was living in the dark for a while, ignoring how I actually was. So coming to Cal, it was a pretty rude awakening."
 
Realizing that she wasn't supporting Cal's success in the water as much as she wanted, Vredeveld worked with head coach Teri McKeever and then-consultant Kathie Wickstrand to learn how to focus on other areas to make her feel that she was still contributing to the team. Naturally reserved to begin with, Vredeveld felt her results in the pool didn't warrant her taking on additional responsibilities. McKeever and Wickstrand, though, had different ideas.
 
"Being a better teammate, being there for people on the team, starting to be more vocal at team meetings helped me step out of my comfort zone and get to the point where I was swimming better," Vredeveld said. "Teri is really great at pushing all of us to a point outside of our comfort zone before you start to really panic. She's good at guiding you, but also at pushing you to get better and improve. We had multiple meetings where she would say if you are somebody who is not a top-point scorer at NCAAs, then I'm going to rely on you more for stuff we need to have done as a program and as a team. There's just so much with Cal swimming that's more than a typical team would be."
 
So, Vredeveld dove in and helped with everything from recruiting to writing birthday cards. Gaining confidence, she also began to speak up more in team meetings. Along the way, she learned lessons that she could take beyond swimming, such as conflict resolution and respecting ideas from others who may not agree with you.
 
"It was awesome to have Cal swimming as such a supportive environment because I absolutely failed multiple times," Vredeveld said. "There was accountability to make sure that we were doing what we needed to be doing, but there was also support. You're pushing yourself to try to do something different, maybe it doesn't work, but the people around you aren't laughing at you or making fun of you or saying you're terrible for all these reasons. Rather, it's OK, you had a misstep. Let's find a way to be better."
 
By the time Vredeveld became a senior, she was elected a co-captain, taking on the leadership role that seemed so unattainable just a couple of years before. Fully immersed into the team, her swim times also began to drop significantly. In 2015, she qualified as an individual for the NCAA Championships and earned Cal's Most Improved Swimmer Award, and she won a national title a year later as part of Cal's 200 free relay squad. As a senior in 2017, she set a personal best in the 100 free at NCAAs and scored as an individual for the first time, taking 15th place, while also helping the 800 free relay to an NCAA runner-up finish.
 
Vredeveld graduated in the spring of 2017 with her degree in history, having focused on European history. While she had initially intended to enter law school immediately after Cal, she took a two-year detour to Atlanta where she taught ninth-grade world history through the Teach for America program. Working with underprivileged students to improve their learning and self-confidence, Vredeveld found herself utilizing many of the skills she honed as a Golden Bear swimmer.
 
"I brought the same drive and work ethic from overcoming my own obstacles in the pool to overcoming the obstacles of teaching in a challenging school," Vredeveld said. "I understand the importance of being a strong role model and holding my students accountable for both their academics and their behavior."
 
Teach for America gave Vredeveld an opportunity to see firsthand areas within the education system that need to be addressed. However, she also realized that there are many factors beyond her control, particularly with what happens outside of the classroom for her students.
 
Her experience in Atlanta gave Vredeveld a new perspective for her career path. Rather than center on education policy or social justice locally – such as in a particular school or school district – she plans to expand her vantage point with a concentration on international humanitarian law at Boston U. Volunteering with human rights clinics and studying abroad are now key parts of her strategy to help her prepare to make the greatest impact.
 
"Teri talks about giving us the tools in order to deal with things that are way outside of swimming," Vredeveld said. "You can use these same tools in your life beyond swimming because that's when it's going to matter even more."
 
If it's up to Vredeveld, she'll put those tools to work on a worldwide scale.