Scholar Stories: Haydock Engineering a Path to Success
10/19/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Every Wednesday during the 2016-17 academic year, MGoBlue.com will highlight a different student-athlete and their academic path. These are our Scholar Stories.
Bailey Haydock has a tough job.
Each day, she balances the requirements of one of the most competitive (and difficult) workloads on campus with the responsibilities that accompany being part of one of the department's most successful programs.
A senior on the University of Michigan women's soccer team, Haydock has both seen and helped her team win a lot of matches. Her contribution to those victories can most readily be found on the practice fields of the U-M Soccer Complex, where, each and every day, she makes her teammates better.
Defenders need to diagnose the run of play and make split-second decisions. One wrong move, one bad decision, and the other team has a chance to put the ball in the back of the net.
Haydock uses that same mindset, the same efficiency and optimization, as an industrial and operations engineering (IOE) major. She says it comes from her father, Bob, who is a petroleum engineer back in her home state of Oklahoma.
"I've always aspired to be like him," Haydock said. "I like math, that's my forte. I'm very logical, and I think I'm that way because of my dad."
Aside from the academic prowess at U-M and the opportunity to play for a high-level head coach in Greg Ryan, the elder Haydock played a pivotal role in his daughter's interest in Michigan. The family owns a cabin in Traverse City that they visit with cousins and grandparents every year, a tradition that has existed since Bob's youth.
"All of my happy vacation feelings were wrapped up in Michigan," said Bailey.
But her journey was not as simple as one might think. After taking Engineering 101 and being introduced to basic coding, Haydock started to focus on computer science. But she soon stumbled across IOE and has felt at home ever since.
Haydock hopes to work in healthcare and technological engineering after graduating next spring. Some of her previous work has been implemented at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, where she volunteers nearly every Thursday. One of her programming courses involved created a computer game to help children with autism.
"I really love doing it, first of all, to give back and be a part of something bigger than the University," she said. "You get to interact with a bunch of kids and play games and take their mind off why they're there. It's cool because someone might look at it and think 'Oh, the athletes are doing such a great thing for the kids.' But I think in a lot of cases, the kids can touch us, too, and help us get a bigger picture of life."
Apart from her academic and extracurricular achievements on campus, Haydock's accomplishments away from Ann Arbor are equally impressive. During the summer before her junior year, Haydock studied abroad in San Sebastian, Spain. While there, she was able to take a product design course that combined aspects of the Spanish culture with engineering.
This past summer, Haydock commuted from Ann Arbor to Toledo four days a week, interning with Change Healthcare, a healthcare technology company that optimizes the process between patients and providers. Being able to get her foot in the door at a healthcare technology company only further affirmed her postgrad aspirations.
As her Michigan career nears its end, Haydock hopes that other student-athletes will approach their tenures at Michigan with a similar balance.
"The resources are all here; it's just about going out and finding who can help. Everyone is so willing to help you get to where you want to be. You just have to be willing to go ask those people and ask the right questions to the right person."
