Sammi Haiby

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Women's Basketball

Junior

Moorhead, Minnesota

Nutrition Exercise Health

Sammi is a junior on the women's basketball team here at UNL studying nutrition exercise health sciences with a focus in physical therapy.

Originally from Minnesota, Haiby grew up with a white family, having been adopted.

“My experience with racial injustice is not really compared to what others might have experienced, I always felt included,” Haiby said. “So I didn't really go through a lot of the hardships I guess that other people might.”

However, coming to UNL Haiby saw a lot more.

“You just kinda experience everything through a different set of eyes,” Haiby said about coming to college. “I really started to notice, like what’s really going on and now a lot of stuff has been evident and prevalent.”

Haiby also talked about how she is very blessed to be part of a team that has good representation and diversity, both with players and coaches/athletic trainers, but the athletics department as a whole could be doing better.

“My program is great, but the question is, is the department not where it should be?” Haiby said. “Just walking around even, you don't see many people of color sitting in offices. I'd like to take that into consideration and push for diversity and change in that department.”

Haiby was also one of the athletes to share the hashtag Legacy Over Image.

“You want to leave a legacy as good of one as you can,” Haiby said. “I think it’s important to voice yourself, be the change, and build that legacy.”