The cover of Wheaties, two olympic medals, and International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame are all achievements that recent Boost Tasc speaker Karyn Bye Dietz, has accomplished.

Boost Tasc was implemented this year as a way for students to hear from individuals who have succeeded in their respective fields. The speakers are a complement to the TASC student tutoring that also occurs each Thursday by appointment in the library. Dietz was the speaker on Thursday April 23rd.

Dietz grew up in River Falls Wisconsin, where she played on the Boys Hockey Team with her brother. After a successful high school career, Dietz went on to play collegiate hockey at the University of New Hampshire.

Her olympic career began in 1998 at the Nagano Japan Olympic Games, where she received a gold medal. In 2002 Dietz won silver at the Salt Lake City Olympic Games. After a successful career, she was the fifth woman to be inducted into the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011.

Dietz shared several life lessons that she has learned through hockey.

“Hockey has taught me to accept people for who they are, If you took my Olympic team of twenty, we didn’t necessarily all have the same political or religious views, but if you can accept people for who they are it will make life a lot easier,” Dietz said.

“Only focus on the things you can control, for example when I go out to play hockey, I can’t control how the other team plays, the ice surface, or the ref, but what I can control is how I prepared.”

“You are going to make a lot of mistakes in your life, but you need to learn from them determine how you are going to make decisions in the future.”

“Be confident in life, when you shake someones hand do it with confidence, show that person that you have confidence in yourself because you know what you are doing. Presence says a lot.”

“I was so lucky to have the dream of making it to the Olympics, and I was so so lucky to have that dream come to,” Dietz said.