Calgary-born Chloe Richardson, a striker on the Dal women’s varsity soccer team, recalls her game-winning goal in a pivotal match against a league-leading team last season: “We were down 1-0, and my teammate scored to tie it up just before half. Then, I scored in the second half.”
Elation followed, but Chloe’s experience in varsity athletics hasn’t always been so movie-scene perfect. She struggled to find her comfort zone in running with the track team, starting out as a sprinter before discovering a better pace in middle-distance running.
An ability to recalibrate and embody new modes of thinking has served Chloe well in other areas of her life, too, particularly her community work. In high school, she worked with children on the autism spectrum and with other cognitive differences during a bike camp. When she came to Dal in 2019, she signed up to volunteer with Autism Nova Scotia. “It was just something I realized I really enjoyed doing when I was exposed to it in high school and then I wanted to keep up with it when I got here.”
As part of the latter experience, she was able to work one-on-one with a child as part of an autism arts program. “I learned how to help him understand the instructions and present the instructions to him in a way that was easy for him to grasp, and to find out what aspects of the art he could do on his own and which aspects he needed help with.”
This past summer, she merged her passions by serving as an inclusion counsellor with Dal Tigers summer camps, aiding campers with different abilities to ensure they got the most out of the experience.
As Chloe shifts to law school, she’s excited to explore criminal law, but also other possible avenues. “I’m definitely interested in learning more about accessibility and law.”
The Academic All-Canadian will be looking to keep learning skills in her sports as well, with two more years of eligible varsity competition on tap.
“The thing that makes me feel connected to Dal is the athletics community because a lot of my friends are also my teammates, so I spend a lot of my time with them. There’s a great community there.”
This story appeared in the DAL Magazine Fall/Winter 2023 issue. Flip through the rest of the issue using the links below.