ASU Soccer: The heart of a defender, Taylor Culver wants to be the voice for others

There was a time in Taylor Culver’s life when she felt like she had no voice. Culver doesn’t want others to feel like she did. She wants to make other people feel safe, feel represented, and feel heard.

The Scottsdale native transferred back home to Arizona State before the 2019 season after two years at Santa Clara for multiple reasons.

Culver didn’t have a ton of ambition for school and wasn’t seeing the pitch as much as she wanted to. She is also a survivor of sexual assault, an incident that occurred while at SCU and made her feel voiceless.

She saw her minutes increase in Tempe, but that was only a minor solution. Culver, originally majoring in marketing, sought out a different major, something that pushed her to do more in life, help people who were once in her position.

Her choice? Law.

“I transferred here, I got more minutes and I just became an overall happier person,” Culver told House of Sparky in a phone interview. “I realized that a marketing degree wasn’t going to give me the skills that I want. I want to get a lot out of my undergrad degree. I realized I love to help people and once I realized my strengths, law sounded right for me.”

What does Culver want to do in law? She wants to be a trial attorney and represent people in the military as part of the Judge Advocate General Corps.

“It’d be awesome to be deployed to another country and do legal work there,” Culver said. “It would broaden my horizons and let me see the world...I want to make the world a better place for people and give people a voice.”

During Culver’s internship at Cantor Law Group, she’s noticed the women around her aren’t afraid to speak up, that they have a voice.

In a current society that has a direct focus on social justice and equality, Culver is thankful for the women in law, women in society, who came before her and have allowed her to do what she wants to do.

According to the 2019 United States Census Bureau, women make up 38 percent of the legal profession. However, that number has steadily increased through the past few decades.

“I feel like it’s a challenge in a good way,” Culver said. “I feel the women before us have given us a platform to speak, that we didn’t use to have. I’ve been given this voice and I need to do something with it, to advocate for my children and the future generations after that.”

As sports took a backseat due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Culver was able to take advantage of her time away from soccer.

She was able to move up her internship with Cantor Law Group when Arizona State’s classes were moved entirely, giving her more of an actual summer break.

Culver will finish her internship later in June as she continues to do her online classes and prepare for Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). She’ll take her test in July with hopes she can get into Arizona State’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

She has been busier during a time when a lot of people have had more free time, but the former Arizona All-State first team representative in high school has also developed a new mindset in her time that doesn’t involve a black and white ball.

“For me personally, it’s been great to step away and realize there’s more to life than sports,” Culver said. “I don’t plan on playing pro soccer. I think that when all you’re doing is soccer, soccer, soccer, you get tunnel vision and think all your self-worth is dependent on playing time and the minutes you get. It’s just been nice to step away and see that there’s more to the world.”

Culver will enter her final season of soccer this upcoming fall. If her plan goes right, her last tackle to stop an attack won’t be the last defense she’ll make in her life.