Posted noon Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024
Sierra Steele pursues her passion for rodeos — inside and outside the classroom
By Maddie Kozel, student writer
By day, Sierra Steele is a sophomore at UW- La Crosse majoring in accountancy.
But in her free time, she travels the country to compete in rodeos — five in the fall semester and another five this spring.
Steele recently finished top 20 in the country in barrel racing, following her state championship win through the Wisconsin High School Rodeo Association and her multiple first-place awards in individual races.
After taking horseback riding lessons as a child, Steele discovered her love of barrel racing. She played hockey in high school but ultimately chose to pursue her passion for rodeos.
At first, this hobby was difficult to balance with her college studies, as she was spending long hours traveling and competing.
But after her first year at UWL, she made a friend who shares her love of barrel racing and her desire to successfully complete her college education. The pair help each other with their courses and take turns driving to South Dakota, Montana, Iowa and Nebraska for rodeos.
When asked how she manages to complete school full-time while competing, Steele says: “It is very challenging to balance school with extracurriculars, but luckily, La Crosse has a lot of opportunities for group studying techniques by making friends within my lectures. My professors have been super supportive and accommodating.”
She plans to use everything she’s learned in her courses about marketing, data analysis and communications to build her own business in the rodeo industry.
Her knowledge of the indusry will help her succeed. And so will the people skills she’s developed through her courses and seminars.
“Luckily,” Steele says, “busy season for accounting is at a completely different time than the busy season for rodeo!”