Lauren Rood is a new board member at America SCORES Bay Area. Now working as an associate on the Capital Formation and Strategy team at Sixth Street Partners, Lauren played on Stanford’s standout Women’s Soccer team from 2016 to 2020. In this latest Five Questions With conversation, Lauren talks about her deep soccer roots; her move into finance during the tumultuous start of the pandemic; and her path to joining the board at America SCORES.

How did soccer shape your childhood?

I grew up in a small town, Camas, in Washington. All my family still lives there. I started playing as far back as I can remember, and soccer quickly became my world. I attended my first national team camp at 15, as part of the youth national team.

I also played for Crossfire Premier in Seattle, WA. My wonderful mother would drive me seven hours roundtrip so I could practice with the team. They were the best team in the area and where I needed to play at the time to be challenged. I was also gone seven to ten days every other month for national camp training–I was constantly on the road. But a huge shout out to my mother, because she sacrificed so much for me to compete at the highest level.

During my sophomore year, I committed to playing for Stanford, which led to Sixth Street, where I work today.

“Soccer has given me so much more than a sport to play. It’s guided me on my path to adulthood and my career.”

How did you end up going into finance?

Classic thing. I went to Stanford thinking I was going to be an orthopedic surgeon. I’d always been interested in science and I loved chemistry. Then I got to college and realized, “Wow, this is really hard.” To do what I wanted to do – to specialize in orthopedic surgery and work with athletes – I’d need to be in school until I was 30 which I realized was not what I wanted.

Ultimately, I decided to pivot. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do but was looking for something challenging, technical, and interesting, that would give me flexibility once I graduated. I wanted options.

So I majored in Management Science and Engineering, with a concentration in finance and analytics, a real mouthful of a degree, a mashup of multiple business-focused things; economics, and computer science, with a technical and analytical underpinning. It was really what I wanted and a great degree.

How did you land at Sixth Street?

I graduated from Stanford in 2020, which was a crazy time for all of us. I had a fifth year of eligibility and planned to play another season in the fall. But when Covid hit, most companies canceled their summer internships, but Sixth Street offered me the opportunity to work in a virtual capacity. I was extremely thankful for the chance to work with the Human Capital Management team remotely from my home in Camas. I loved the work and the people I was working with.

When it became clear that Covid wasn’t going away anytime soon, I decided not to go back and play my last season at Stanford and to continue pursuing a career at Sixth Street. My body was beaten up pretty badly at that time, and I was just coming off our second National Championship win. With that in mind, I felt this was the best way to go out and start my next chapter. In a time of uncertainty, I decided the best choice was to take a job. Looking at it now, I think it’s such a blessing to have your first job out of college be a good one and somewhere you want to put down roots.

How did you get involved with SCORES?

When I first joined Sixth Street, I worked on the Human Capital Management team. I’ve since transitioned to the Capital Formation and Strategy team. My then manager, Kate Hannick, had been working with SCORES as part of our Sixth Street Foundation initiatives. We were rolling out a new effort to run volunteer events with all our global offices. She suggested working with SCORES and asked if I wanted to run with it. I was all in.

Three years later, we’ve had several volunteer day events with more employees participating each time. I absolutely love it, not only because of my own engagement with America SCORES, but because I can get people out of the office midweek to spend time outside hanging out with really cool, sweet kids. Soccer is beautiful in the way it unites people of different backgrounds. You can be active, have fun, and learn something new about someone else or even yourself.

My work leading these events and serving as a liaison between Sixth Street and SCORES paved the way for me to join the SCORES board.

What are you most excited about doing on the board?

In my day-to-day job, I work in a fundraising and strategy marketing position for the firm. I’m excited to bring those skills to contribute to fundraising efforts with SCORES. The other thing I think a lot about, particularly as a junior board member, is how to help the next generation of people engage with SCORES and take on leadership roles. I want to reignite more youth engagement. So that might mean working with people in their early 20s to get them excited, involved, and trained for leadership roles. It’s investing in people.

What do you like to do in your free time? (beyond pick-up soccer, which is a given)

Anything active. I live in the Outer Richmond and love going to Ocean Beach. I love spending time in Golden Gate Park away from any screen or technology. On Saturday mornings, my boyfriend and I like to grab coffee at our favorite spot, go for a 45-minute walk, make some breakfast, and start our days from there. That’s my ideal.

To read more Five Questions With conversations, go here.