Ryan Zetwick — Helping Others
Charger Golf | Class of 2020 | Castle Rock, CO
By: Calli Townsend
Senior Ryan Zetwick would tell you he's grown a lot since his freshman year at Hillsdale. Over the last three and a half years, he's become more focused, more hardworking, and more eager to help others.
"I wouldn't say I'm the most proud of any specific achievement, but more just seeing how much I've learned and grown as a person," Ryan said. "I went from being really shy and unskilled and very few personal skills, whereas now I think I can impact the other guys on the team and help them grow."
He looks out for his younger teammates and tries to find ways to help them with their own struggles.
"As a freshman you're kinda scared to speak up and connect with people, but now I see people and think, 'Oh he could be a lot like me, how can I help him overcome some of the challenges I had?'" he said.
His desire to help others extends beyond his golf teammates. Ryan is majoring in finance and wants to pursue a career as a financial adviser so he can help people have better financial futures.
"Ideally, I want to do something that is used to help others in finance," he said. "You can have the opportunity to help people understand how to have a better financial background and how to save for their futures."
Finance is something Ryans has always been interested in, but he's started to take it more seriously since coming to Hillsdale.
"I always found it interesting, but it wasn't something I saw myself doing when I was younger," he said. "But it kept coming up I guess. A lot of my teammates were in it and they showed me how it can be useful."
This past summer he was able to intern at Northwestern Mutual as a financial adviser in Denver.
"It was helpful to practice building a client base. I worked with the senior reps," Ryan said. "It was really cool to see the impact you can have on people. As a college kid, people don't really expect you to help that much, but even the small things I did could help them. I could help my parents understand some different savings tools that they didn't even know were options."
Not only have his teammates helped encourage his involvement in the world of finance, but they've also become some of his closest friends and he says he's grateful to have them.
"It's nice having a group to always fall back on and always being together and being surrounded by people with like-minded goals. It's an opportunity to work for something bigger than yourself," he said.
Despite golf being such an individual sport, he says the team still finds ways to work together, on and off the course.
"There are different goals, and it's individual, but we still work together. Golf has always been an individual thing for me, but being here and on the team has brought us together," he said. "In high school we'd just show up and practice together, whereas here we hang out together before practice, hangout on weekend, and workout together."
Ryan is passionate about helping others and being around people he cares about and who make him a better person, and he tries to do the same for them.
"Whether it's finance or something else, I think it's important that if you're going to work, it should be something that impacts others rather just making money," he said. "Making a difference is something that's always been on my mind, rather than just working for myself. I'd rather have a bigger purpose."