Daily Archives: August 27, 2021

Lea Okkels – A Danish Girl exploring the US

Lea Okkels is not an ordinary danish girl. At the age of 19 years, she has already experienced more than most young people. Let me introduce her to you.

Lea was born on September 3rd of 2001, near Copenhagen, Denmark. Back there, she was living together with her younger sister, her mother, and her cat Simba. Even though her sister is her only biological sibling, she considers a boy living on another floor of the house they’ve been living in a big brother.

Lea has always had a passion for sports. She has played soccer for several years and is a huge fan of FC Barcelona. In addition, she loves to watch Formula 1, where she supports McLaren as a team. Because of that, she’d like to be a sports journalist in the future.

When Lea was still going to school in Denmark, she decided to spend a high school exchange year in the US, which she ended up spending in Fountain, Colorado. People usually think it must have been the best year of her life, but the truth is, even though she “feel[s] like she grew” from the experience, there have been downsides for her. Talking about her exchange year, she states: “I didn’t get to be the real me because my host family was so far from what I am as a person.”

Yet, she has decided to come back to the US just a few years later. Why? “To play soccer and study at the same time”, Lea says. Tom Maxon, Head Coach of Morningside University’s women’s soccer team, convinced Lea to join Morningside and the team in the fall term of 2021. So, although Lea’s journey has started a while ago, she’s still just at the beginning of it with, hopefully, four of the most exciting years of her life just in front of her.