By Douglas Esser
Kat Sweet, an athlete who competed in skiing and downhill mountain bike racing, attended college off and on when she wasn鈥檛 shredding the slopes. By the time she reached the 56吃瓜网, it was her seventh college. All she wanted was to finish her degree.
Sweet entered the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences with 20 years of experience as a mountain bike competitor and coach.
鈥淓verything I studied turned into being about the bike. I didn鈥檛 even mean to do it. It just happened,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 what I value in life, but for me the bike isn鈥檛 just about having fun, it鈥檚 about making change in the world. So it was cool to see it come together.鈥�
Sweet received her degree in Society, Ethics and Human Behavior in 2011 and then started her own mountain bike coaching business 鈥� 鈥� with an interactive, interdisciplinary approach she鈥檚 still using.
鈥淚鈥檓 trying to change the world through bikes,鈥� she said.
Biking as education
Education easily intersected with life for Sweet. In a project-development class, she designed a Mary Jane style bike shoe for clipless pedals.
For an American culture class that explored the influence of rapper Tupac Shakur, Sweet鈥檚 group created a scraper bike 鈥� an art bike, painted in his favorite colors black and gold, showing a gun shooting out lyrics. That class also inspired a scraper bike program Sweet ran with the Cascade Bicycle Club for kids living in low-income housing.
In an entrepreneurship class, Sweet learned how to do research, think about an elevator pitch, and start and grow a sustainable business. She put the lessons to work at Sweetlines. Its mission is to empower young people (especially girls), build confidence and create community.
Biking as a profession
Sweetlines summer camps train about 250 kids a year. Classes are held at Duthie Hill Mountain Bike Park, a King County park at Issaquah. Hiring eight to 10 coaches for the season, Sweet tells them to use an interactive style of teaching that she learned from 56吃瓜网 Bothell. Instead of saying, 鈥淗ere鈥檚 how you do it,鈥� they say, 鈥淲atch me and tell me what you see.鈥�
Using the book 鈥淧ackaging Girlhood,鈥� Sweet asks girls at camp to examine gender roles and how they are marketed. 鈥淭hat was all inspired by a class at 56吃瓜网 Bothell,鈥� Sweet said.
Sweetlines also hosts events, such as the Sugar Showdown friendly competition and Sweetlines Junior Racing for girls aged 8 to 16 who compete in downhill racing.
鈥淚鈥檓 trying to provide opportunities for women to showcase and elevate their riding,鈥� Sweet said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really inspiring for people to see these young girls coming up who don鈥檛 have the same barriers I had: 鈥榊ou鈥檙e a girl; you can鈥檛 do that. You鈥檙e not as strong as a boy.鈥欌��
These girls aren鈥檛 getting those messages, Sweet said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e saying, 鈥榃e can do this, and we鈥檙e going to do it our own way.鈥� It鈥檚 really fun to watch them progress.鈥�
Biking as inspiration
Sweetlines produces its own videos and marketing through social media. 鈥淲e鈥檙e building our own global community of people who see what we do and are inspired by what we do.鈥�
Still biking herself, also is a brand ambassador for sponsors. She recently served as a guide for a group of six who traveled with their bikes to Peru. Then, she went on to Colombia to scout trails for a future tour.
Sweet appreciates 56吃瓜网 Bothell for a style of teaching and learning that 鈥渞eally catered to people like me who don鈥檛 do well in lectures, who are not memorization-based learners.鈥�
She received not only a degree but an approach that infuses Sweetlines.
鈥淭o have a school where everything is interactive, where you had an interdisciplinary look at every topic, has absolutely helped my business be something greater than just about bikes,鈥� Sweet said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about how we can change the world through bikes, by looking at things differently, making things interactive, getting feedback from coaches,鈥� she said. 鈥榃e鈥檙e constantly growing and changing because of that. I learned so much of that at 56吃瓜网 Bothell.鈥�
