I featured student athletes in another issue of the College of Business’ magazine, Prospectus. Online version of this student athlete profile can be viewed here.

Cajsa Persson is a long way from home. The senior in marketing and management hails from Jönköping, Sweden, an 18-hour flight away from Ames, Iowa. Persson grew up near a golf course and said her father was the one who instilled her great love for the sport.
Most universities in Sweden do not have athletic programs for their students, but Persson knew she wanted to go to school before starting a professional career. After watching her older sister pursue golf in the U.S. at Sacramento State, Persson decided she wanted to follow a similar path.

“It was about two and a half years before I started college that I realized, ‘oh, that’s actually an option to study and play golf [in the U.S.],” Persson said.

Persson met ISU coach, Christie Martens, and said they clicked right away. After seeing the campus and the golf facilities, Persson knew she wanted to attend Iowa State.

In her four years at Iowa State, Persson has succeeded and continued to improve both on the golf course and in the classroom. She recorded her first top-10 of the season last fall at the Big12 Championship, leading her to earn All-Tournament Honors. She has received first team for Academic All-Big 12 teams for the past two years and her stroke average of 75.14 ranks third in Iowa State’s history.

Persson said what she is studying in the class is useful for what she is doing on the golf course as well. From her experience promoting herself as an athlete to recruiters and taking charge on the team, she said marketing and management were perfect majors for her to choose.

“I’ve always known I’ve wanted to do business, so it’s been easy for me to go into that,” Persson said.

In particular, Persson said Marketing 343, the personal sales class taught by Dr. Wong, has been very inspirational not only for class, but for real life.

“Dr. Wong is a great professor, he brings a lot of life stories to the class,” Persson said.

After graduating from Iowa State, Persson plans to continue playing golf and participating in the Ladies European Tour. She is also considering working for her masters’ in finance at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark.

“I love it here, and I’m looking forward to new challenges in life,” Persson said.