You can help South African athlete Skye reach new heights in the USA

Of the 13 track-and-field athletes recently selected to represent South Africa for the 2018 Commonwealth World Games, only three were woman. This, from a country of 60 million people, with a potential pool of 7.5 million potentially eligible female athletes. My name is Skye Boshoff, and I plan on changing that.

My journey

I am a South African athlete who represents both my country and my province. My exposure to provincial athletics began in 2013 when when I was 13 years old and I represented the Western Cape for shot put for the first time. I have broken several records since then, representing my province and my country in several national and international events. I have included my sporting achievements in detail below, if you would like to learn more about them. I have also included reference letters and links to my achievements below.

I've been accepted into a USA university

After seven years of hard work, blood and sweat (literally!), and tears, I have been accepted in Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, USA to study Leisure & Sports Studies (BS) Major in the fall of 2019. I am ecstatic at this opportunity as I have a strong desire to study, train and compete overseas and experience first-hand how successful and developed countries support and develop aspiring athletes. My dream is to bring those countries’ ideas and methods to South Africa to spearhead support systems and foundations for athletes here. If I can help South Africa’s talented youngsters to reach their full potential, perhaps South Africa will have more than three female athletes represented at the next Commonwealth World Games.

Kutztown has graciously offered me financial aid and a partial financial scholarship amounting to USD9,719. I am so grateful and thankful for the university's help. The first year's total fee comes to about USD34,856. After the scholarship amount is taken into account, I will need to raise about USD25,137 for the first year, with the first term starting in August 2019. This amount does NOT include the price of visas, flights, textbooks, and uniforms. I have a full financial breakdown should you like to see it.

I am raising funding for my tuition

I have successfully completed my high school education (my report card is attached) and I am currently working as a sports coach part time to put money away for my tuition. My family has also graciously offered to help me with a portion of my tuition fees. However, in order to reach the full amount mentioned above, and to ensure I have sufficient funds for any miscellaneous fees as well as the second and third year of my studies, I need to raise additional funds. This is the reason I have created this fund-raising campaign.

I am not looking for a specific amount, but I would be grateful for any monies that I can secure through this campaign to help my achieve my dreams in the USA. As mentioned, I do have details on the amounts needed for my studies and I would be happy to provide these privately. Please message me if you would like to see these figures. I have attached reference letters from coaches, peers and colleagues to this campaign.

I am hugely passionate about sports. I cannot wait to make my sporting education dreams come true in the USA, so that I can help others achieve their dreams in the future too.

My achievements:

Swimming achievements - 2016-2017 (represented South Africa and Boland province)

1. My swimming achievements include being a member of my primary and high-school swim teams and a member of the Boland & South Africa Underwater Hockey teams.
2. My U16 Boland fin-swim team placed 1st in the 2016 SA junior interprovincial championships and my U19 Boland fin-swim team placed 1st in 2017.
   
   Underwater hockey achievements 2017-2018 (represented South Africa and Boland province)

1. In my capacity as half-back for the U19 Boland Underwater Hockey team, I was selected as a member of the South Africa U19 Underwater Hockey Team.
2. This team represented South Africa at the Underwater Hockey World Championship Games in Tasmani, Australia from 12-14 July 2017 where we achieved 3rd place.
   
   Shot put achievements - 2014-2018 (represented the Western Cape)

1. My shot-put achievements include breaking Parel Vallei High School’s inter-colour shot-put record for five consecutive years (2014–2018) and breaking the inter-schools shot-put records between 2014–2017.
2. I received the top trophy as Parel Vallei High School’s Most Promising Sportswoman of the Year in 2015.
3. At inter-schools athletics in 2017 I received the Best Shot Put Athlete medal for breaking my own record, set in 2016.
4. In addition, I broke the U17 shot-put record at the Cradock Athletics meet in October 2017, with a personal best of 12.30m (3kg).
5. I represented the Western Cape in shot put in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2018.

Hammer throw achievements - 2015-2018 (represented Western Cape and Boland province)

1. I represented the Western Cape in hammer throw between 2015 and 2018.
2. My hammer-throw achievements include breaking Parel Vallei High School’s inter-colour records in 2017 and 2018.
3. I also broke the inter-schools records in 2015 and 2016.
4. At inter-schools athletics 2016 I broke both the hammer-throw and shot-put U17 records and received the Piet Faasen trophy for being the best overall athlete and obtaining the highest points achieved on the Athletics South Africa (ASA) table.
5. I set the Boland U15 hammer-throw record at the South African School Athletics (SASA) championships in 2015.
6. My 2017 season personal best hammer-throw achievement was 53.16m (3kg).

Hockey achievements - 2015 (represented Western Cape and Boland province)

1. I played as Parel Vallei High School’s first-team field-hockey goalkeeper from 2015 until the end of my schooling in 2018.
2. Our team won the Elsie Coetzer Festival in 2015, the Fairmont Easter Festival 2017, and the Investec Hockey Festival August 2017.
3. Our team was also a finalist in the 2016 Fairmont Easter Festival and the 2017 Cape Town Spur International Hockey Festival, coming 3rd in the Western Cape Spar Hockey Challenge in 2017.
4. My goalkeeping coach is Jacques Le Roux, the ex-SA goalkeeper and current SA coach.
5. I was a member of the Boland U16B Pro-Series Indoor (PSI) hockey team, and we won gold at the PSI Nationals in 2015, where I was selected as goalkeeper of the tournament.
6. I represented the Western Cape as goalkeeper for the U16 Interprovincial A team in 2016.

Other notable sporting achievements

1. My high school selected me as team captain for the 2017 Cradock Top 10 Athletics Tour, the 2018 Nassau inter-colour swim team, the 2018 Nassau inter-colour athletics team, and the 2018 field-hockey Holland tour group.
2. As part of my commitment to sports development, I achieved my Level 1 coaching qualifications for hammer throw, shot put and goalkeeping and I informally coached hammer throw athletes during high school.

Links to my achievements

https://www.iaaf.org/athletes/south-africa/skye-bo...

https://www.bolanderlifestyle.co.za/news/the-sky-i...

http://athletics.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/04...

https://www.netwerk24.com/ZA/Distrikspos/Sport/sky...

http://asajuniors18.co.za/results/Day3/115_THRHamm...

https://issuu.com/tiemedia/docs/helderberg__april_...

http://meetpro.co.za/live/2017Central/results_159....

http://athletics.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/09...

http://m.liveresults.co.za/completed/2018WesternCa...

https://eolstoragewe.blob.core.windows.net/wm-6744...

http://baca.co.za/2016-boland-high-school-junior-c...

http://m.liveresults.co.za/completed/2017BolandJun...

http://bolandathletics.com/sitefiles/wp-content/up...

http://www.hsstrand.co.za/~strandsk/images/2016dok...

http://bolandathletics.com/sitefiles/wp-content/up...

http://m.liveresults.co.za/completed/2017BolandJun...

http://m.liveresults.co.za/completed/2017BolandJun...

http://bolandathletics.com/sitefiles/wp-content/up...