Meet Keiser professor, former soccer player Asheika Steadman-Culmer
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Born and raised in the heart of the beautiful island of Jamacia, Asheika Steadman-Culmer found her passion for soccer from a young age. Growing up, an ideal Sunday for Professor Steadman-Culmer consisted of playing and watching soccer with her father and others on the 鈥渂all field鈥� in Jamaica. Although female soccer players in Jamaica were not as prominent, this did not prohibit Professor Steadman-Culmer from playing and growing her love for the game.
Her journey began in 2003 when she reached high school and had the opportunity to play on a competitive team. There, her love for the game only intensified. Professor Steadman-Culmer went on to play soccer in college at the University of Technology along with another team called Fusion outside of the university in 2007. This experience, as she recalled, was one of a kind because she could play and form relationships with athletes from all over the world.
After playing at the collegiate level, Professor Steadman-Culmer moved to the United States in 2012. It did not take her long to find 鈥淪trikers,鈥� a club soccer team she could play with. Sadly, Asheika had to take a step back from soccer in 2013 due to injuries to her knee, but her love for the game did not stop. Asheika learned valuable life lessons as a soccer player, from punctuality, submitting to higher heads, articulating words, dealing with conflict, handling different personalities, and adjusting to different environments and people.
Asheika鈥檚 current role as a professor at Keiser University鈥檚 Flagship Campus in the Information Technology department, and in her former role as Technology Engineer at Nova Southeastern University, provided her excellent opportunities to put the lessons from soccer to use when working with students and colleagues. Professor Steadman-Culmer understands the role and correlation that Information Technology and Data Science play in sports. Through computers, software, and various devices, one can find immense and more accessible information that can be used in sports and on athletes. She has found that her love for sports has transferred to her work in the IT industry. Information Technology in sports is a rapidly growing field, as data and software are involved in a growing number of aspects of the sports world today.
To Professor Steadman-Culmer, soccer was not only a sport that she loved and had a passion for, but it was also her therapy; a love she could share and bond over with her father, and a game that taught her memorable life lessons. What is so special about her love for soccer is her ability to continue her passion for the game as an Information Technology and Data Science educator. Although Professor Steadman-Culmer may not be playing as much soccer as she used to, she can still do and work with what she loves each day through the power of Data Science.
She continues to inspire and motivate her students to find that purpose in everything they do, whether in sports or the classroom and to use that drive and motivation they have for their sports at school.
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