Seneca Friend was named as the Best Forward on the Stanford Women's Rugby team in 2020. She was also a part of the Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference (PMRC) New Zealand All-Star Tour Squad. Seneca is now a Stanford Alumna who is starting her career at Microsoft. This is her story.

Seneca Friend was raised in the small town of Elkridge, Maryland where the population is just over 15 thousand. As a kid, Friend grew up as an extremely active child, dipping her toe in all different types of sports. In middle school, Friend played basketball for a Christian league and simultaneously participated in a handful of intramural sports including tennis, badminton, and archery. Once Friend began high school, she joined the varsity golf team and the varsity track and field team.

As Friend's high school career came to an end, she began her college search. Stanford University is known for many things, one of which is the excellent location in sunny California. Friend explained, “I thought it would be like PCH from Zoey 101 (A show that aired on Nickelodeon in2005). Although I was wrong, Stanford’s pristine campus was certainly compelling.” Friend was also drawn to Stanford because of its renowned academics, “it is one of the top engineering schools in the country and I knew I wanted to do something in engineering.” 

Friend was admitted into the undergraduate class of 2020 where she began her Stanford journey. Her freshman year, she lived in the Ujamaa House which is located in West Campus. Stanford Residential Education describes the background of the Ujamaa House which, "was created as a concept in 1970 with a concentration of Black first-year and upperclassmen students. Over the years, this African American themed dorm has expanded its intellectual focus to include the entire African Diaspora. Ujamaa focuses on the histories, issues, and cultures of the Black Diaspora.”

Friend's Peer Health Educator in the house was part of the Stanford Women’s Rugby team,which sparked her initial interest in playing the sport.Friend's sophomore year she joined a sorority and one of her prophytes was also on the team.Since coming to Stanford, Friend hadn’t participated in any sports and she missed being part of a team. Friend explained how both of these people had expressed “very positive sentiments toward the Stanford Women’s Rugby team and were great advocates of the bond that the team had and how much fun the sport was.” Friend also missed the competitive aspect of playing a sport, so her junior year she finally decided to go out for the team. “I like the aggression of the sport but also how much skill and strategy are required. I have never really played a sport quite like rugby, so it was very new and exciting to me." Kaila Farrell, Friend's line sister, described that "although Seneca had never played rugby before she was extremely excited to join the team. 

"The team aspect was truly exhilarating for me. I really enjoyed being part of the team at Stanford. Having regular practices, workouts, and games was also extremely nice." Before Friend joined the team, she was working out mostly on her own, "it was great to be on a team where we practiced and played together and lifted each other up,” Friend explained. Farrell described Friend as being an extremely hard worker and approaching everything she does with zest and passion. "She never missed a game or practice. She was always full of excitement, even if the team didn't do as well as they had hoped." Farrell continued to describe Friend as a phenomenal individual and is a "force to be reckoned with."

Friend achieved great success and many accomplishments during her two years playing for the Stanford Women's Rugby team. She expressed that her greatest achievement was not getting majorly injured because that was common with the other sports she played. Apart from the lack of injuries, some of Friend’s greatest achievements took place in her second year on the team. Friend tried out to be a part of the PMRC New Zealand All-Star Tour Squad. She was initially selected as an alternate, but she later secured a spot on the team.

This past season (2019-2020), Friend received two ‘Hard Yards’ (which represents the hard work a player puts in that doesn’t involve scoring tries or making line breaks). She was also named the Stanford Women’s Rugby's 2020 Best Forward. “I had the honor of attending a decent amount of games in both Seneca's junior and senior seasons,” said friend Onyi Ozoma. “As an athlete, she has a high motor and a ton of excitement.She found joy in practices and treated every game like it was the playoffs.” Friend’s dedication and eagerness to learn, practice and grind in a sport she hadn’t played prior to Stanford is another huge accomplishment. She is proud she "played alongside her teammates and that they finished this season off strong.” Mea Anderson, Friend's colleague and classmate, expressed that "Seneca is an absolute powerhouse, and every game I’ve gone to, she’s made several tries. She always seems really tuned into the game and even when she’s having a tough day on the field, she never slows down or gets distracted. I’m really proud of her and miss screaming her name from the stands."

As Friend reminisces on her time playing for the Stanford Women’s Rugby program she, wishes that “our 7’s season could have been longer. In the fall quarter, we were training to play 7’s and I honestly loved it, but it ended in early November. Then we spent the rest of the year training for and playing 15’s.” The players' and coaches' drive and dedication to the sport could be compared to the teams who get the chance to play at the varsity level. “I wish Women’s Rugby was a PAC-12 sport.” According to Ozoma, Friend is an “incredibly driven person with a caring heart. She is someone who impresses me in how consistently she gives her all, both to what she does and to the people she knows. Seneca is focused, disciplined,insightful, fair, and has excellent integrity.” These characteristics ring true on and off the rugby pitch. 

Friend was an outstanding rugby player, but she also was an amazing student. “Seneca is someone who inspires me as a student. Her discipline and incredible work ethic has taken her through many classes as she secured her Electrical Engineering degree. She often conquers content and even when a class is difficult, she relentlessly exhausts her resources and tries her best,” Onyi Ozoma expressed. Ozoma and Friend met while waiting for a bus and later that year they attended the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Convention together. Friend also dedicated her time to the community by being Chair of the Black Student Union's High School Conference, where she met Mea Anderson. "The conference is very energy and time intensive. She always gets things done quickly and well. I wish I had even an ounce of the work ethic and dedication that she has for her education, “expressed Anderson. With a degree in Electrical Engineering, Friend spent countless hours studying and learning new material. Friend explained, “graduating is the hardest part about being a Stanford student. Being a Stanford student requires a lot of focus and discipline. Balancing your life prior to coming to Stanford, social life at Stanford, academics, extracurricular's, relationships, and just trying to excel in every single one of those areas is what I found to be most difficult.” 

The hard work paid off when Friend graduated with the Stanford class of 2020 with an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering. Once Friend graduated, she began a remote internship in Aurora, Colorado working as a Firmware Engineer for the company Pure Watercraft. After a few months, Friend will pack her bags and move to Washington State to start her full-time position as a Program Manager at Microsoft. As Friend ventures outside of Stanford, Ozoma voiced that, “Seneca has an incredible heart and is a joy to get to know. If you've never gotten to connect with her before, I definitely recommend pursuing that.”

Apart from working hard on the rugby pitch, in the classroom, and contributing to the community, Friend enjoys cooking and hopes to one day open her own restaurant. “She loves to cook and wants to have her own restaurant, I hope that door opens for her related to that passion and getting to explore it,” communicated Ozoma. “I hope she has an amazing time in Seattle working for Microsoft. She is a great leader and I hope to see her appreciated and leading at Microsoft.” 

As a part of the Stanford graduating class of 2020, Friend would like to tell her peers congratulations and shared some advice that someone once shared with her, “ ‘God placed the best things in life on the other side of fear.’ In other words, don’t let fear be a deterrent to accomplishing great things in life because they may end up being better than you expect.”

Friend has said her final goodbyes to the Stanford life she once knew, but she will always keep the memories and lessons learned close to her heart. “I think with just about any sport, rugby has taught me the importance of discipline and working hard, which is very applicable to life. Rugby taught me the ability to get up. In rugby, you get knocked down so many times, just like in life, and some hits hurt more than others. The most important thing is that you get up, shake it off, move on and keep trying your best.” The bond and memories Friend has made with her Stanford classmates and rugby teammates will never be forgotten. As she heads into another chapter of life, Friend has a few words she wished to share with her past teammates, “I love you guys and you will forever hold a special place in my heart. I got your back for life.”