Golf is the perfect sport for Elishia Trainer ’07. “Maybe it’s because I am so independent and am comfortable playing a game for five hours, just trying to compete against myself,” says the Las Vegas native and the only woman on Occidental’s varsity golf team.

Elishia’s love for the game is matched by another passion: since high school, she has been involved with the Student AIDS Global Campaign, a national organization dedicated to ending the AIDS pandemic. She was one of 500 volunteers who recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend a three-day conference and lobby Congress about the international AIDS crisis.

“I’ve always wanted to do something to help create change on a global scale,” says Elishia, who spent a year after graduating from high school volunteering for the campaign and working full-time as a golf caddy. “Politics seems to be the most effective way to have an impact.”

An interest in world politics was one of the reasons Elishia chose to come to Occidental. “I wanted to attend a liberal arts school, and the Occidental-at-the-U.N. and the Diplomacy and World Affairs programs were deciding factors. Oxy was also one of the few schools where the advisors knew what a Truman Scholarship was. It’s a very competitive award, but it’s something I want to apply for.”

Elishia, who hopes to start a branch of the Student Global AIDS Campaign at Occidental, will be watching the LPGA with great interest as she works to maintain her six handicap. “Golf is still a male-dominated sport, but I think interest in women’s golf is growing. The players who are competing today will definitely encourage more girls to start playing.”