Born with a strong desire to thrive in soccer and with a tremendous love for animals, Raynette Mansour, a 22-year-old kinesiology major, can usually be found playing soccer in the field of her local neighborhood park or working at her father’s veterinary hospital.

“I’ve had a passion for soccer since I was about five years old. That was the first time my dad put me on a team and I’ve been playing on one ever since. I had a minor set back though when I suffered an injury to my ankle my senior year of high school which kept me from playing on the team that last semester,” she said.

Her love for sports, as she has also played softball and has been on a track and field team, boosted her interest in a major that revolved around knowledge of the body and it’s movement when involved in sports and exercising.

“I wasn’t sure about what I wanted to study. Since I’ve been around animals all my life because my dad is a veterinarian and has his own hospital, I have been an animal lover for as long as I can remember. So I thought about becoming a vet myself, but after taking a couple of Biology classes and realizing how much it would take to become a veterinarian, I decided that wasn’t for me,” she said.

However, that hasn’t kept her away from animals. After school, Mansour works at her father’s hospital as a receptionist, but she makes sure she gets time in to play with the dogs that are in the hospital’s care. She works there about five days a week.

Mansour comes from a relatively small family, with one older brother and one older sister.  Each of them has received a bachelor’s degree from a four-year university and now she is on her way to obtaining hers. Although she wandered through her first couple of years at college not really knowing where she was going to end up and what she would finally set her educational goal as, Mansour knew one thing was for sure, she was going to get a college degree in some field of study.

“Education has always been an important factor in my family. From a very young age my parents instilled in my brother, my sister and myself that we needed to get an education. It was like a rule that we knew we couldn’t get around, there was no question about it,” she said.

Family means a lot to Mansour who says she and her family all like to schedule one day a week where they have spend the entire day together.

“We always plan a day where none of us has anything important or major to do and we get together for breakfast where we plan what to do for the rest of the day,” she said.

Even though her daily activities like spending time with her family, performing her hobbies and attending school, Mansour also enjoys volunteering at soup kitchens during the holidays and says she is glad she started this holiday tradition.

“It’s something I started doing about two years ago and I’ve really enjoyed it. I feel happy when I know I’ve contributed to making someone else’s holiday a little brighter. Especially when although the people we serve are less fortunate, many of them have such a good sense of humor and have such a good spirit. It makes me admire them,” she said.

As busy as she is, Mansour enjoys having hectic days because she says it makes her feel her days are productive, plus they help her appreciate when she actually has a day off.