Each person at Baldwin has their own hobbies and talents outside of the classroom that aren’t always obvious to you walking through the hallways. Jennifer Ma ‘26 is one of them, who relentlessly works on improving her skiing talents.

Ma has always been a dedicated athlete, skiing for nearly her entire life. She proudly pushes through the challenges thrown at her and takes advantage of every opportunity she is given to ski– quite incredible considering skiing is seen as an endangered sport. After the pandemic and global warming, ski resorts have been struggling to stay open for their traditional time periods. 

Ma’s ten years of expertise are clearly reflected in her recent performances: last year, she was ranked ninth in the state and was a member of the state team. Read on as she shares her skiing journey. 

When did you first begin to ski and how did you know it was a sport you wanted to continue to pursue?

At age four, I learned how to ski at Shawnee Resort, a local mountain in Pennsylvania. My first memory of my growing love for skiing was when I crashed into a snowboarder and I realized skiing is better than snowboarding.

What is your favorite aspect of skiing?

It’s so thrilling and I love the scenery. There’s a phrase, “All Friends on a Powder Day,” which describes how everybody who skis is connected through their shared love. I generally love snow, and skiing is the only sport that really incorporates it. 

What was a memorable skiing trip you had? 

This winter I went to Austria for twelve days to train with Austria Racing Camps, which is part of the Austria race team, and is an international camp. There are world-class coaches and it was a truly good learning experience and I improved a lot. 

Who is someone that pushes you to try your best?

Lindsay Vonn is a U.S. Olympic champion who retired recently. She has such determination: when she was racing professionally she always felt that she could compete with the men even though she was a woman. Females and males compete on different race courses so she was always pushing the limits of her career, which I thought was really inspiring. Someone else who inspires me is actually my dad, who started skiing around the same time I did, and because I wanted to get better at skiing, he decided to start training himself as well so now he is a level one PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors of America) coach. 

What are some challenges you face when skiing?

There are a lot of weather difficulties. Skiing is not very accessible. For skiing, you have to go to a mountain, and for me, my commute [is] an hour away. It’s definitely very expensive because you have to buy all the skis and all the equipment. After ski racing, if I do it after school, I get home at 9:30-10. Having homework on top of that can be challenging, [balancing] the student-athlete life. A lot of my teammates quit ski racing because it was too hard for them to manage. I do not see that in my future but it can definitely become a threat if it gets bad.

Where do you see yourself in five to ten years? 

Definitely college racing. I will definitely pursue that whether [at the] FIS (International Ski Federation) level or college races, but likely not professionally.