Nicole Jaquemet has always loved a new challenge.

At the age of six, she was the only girl playing for the all-boys local soccer club in Switzerland.

At 14, she left home to go to attend the National Soccer Academy.

At 15, she was the youngest player on FC Zurich that won the Swiss Championship and qualified for UEFA Women's Championship.

At 20, she overcame two knee injuries to continue playing soccer while also pursuing an education in the United States.

At 22, she graduated from Louisiana Tech University summa cum laude.

At 23, she applied to one of the top school's in all of London and was accepted.

Now at the age of 25, Nicole is undergoing her latest challenge at Capco, a global business and technology consultancy, where she is a digital banking consultant in the Fintech capital of the world London.

Going out on a limb here but Nicole might very well be the first person to ever venture from Switzerland to Louisiana to England (what a love of soccer and education can do for you).

Part I ââ'¬" Switzerland

Growing up, that love of soccer led to her being selected for the National Soccer Academy of the Swiss Football Association where she spent two years.

Afterwards, she moved back home to the suburbs of Zurich to complete four years of advanced secondary education and being a member/captain of the Swiss National Teams U17, U19 and U20 with one qualification for the UEFA European Championship and two qualifications for the U20 FIFA World Championships (Germany in 2010 and Japan in 2012).

Then came two ACL and meniscus surgeries coupled with the dilemma of what to do next and where to do it. "Playing soccer in the United States, studying and learning English would be the perfect plan."

Going would be mean giving soccer one more go. And if that didn't work out, there was the international experience of the US to make the decision worth it.

"I quickly received offers, but none of them meant anything to me as the US is a huge country and I was not familiar with the education system. I had a final four schools in Hawai'i, Virginia, Washington and Louisiana, all with interesting offers in terms of education and sports."

The most engaged coach out of the group ââ'¬" LA Tech head coach Kevin Sherry.

"He would email me every day, sending me pictures and videos. I could feel that he really wanted to bring me to Louisiana."

Admittedly, going to Virginia Commonwealth was option No. 1 for Nicole. There was a small fear of the hot Louisiana weather (the average high in Zurich in August is 76 degrees).

The other small fear was the English. "My godmother is an English professor and scared me with the Southern accent when she tried to imitate it."

"VCU took forever to get back to me so I gave up hope. I texted coach Sherry to see if his offer was still on despite my initial rejection. It was and I took it. Mainly because of coach Sherry's tireless engagement and constant communication."

Part II ââ'¬" Louisiana

As a freshman at Louisiana Tech in 2012, Nicole had two goals. The academic goal was to improve her English so she signed up for literature classes. The athletic goal was to play a full 90-minute match without knee pain.

Both goals were accomplished, and then some.

She ended up being a Lady Techster for three seasons, playing in 56 matches with 31 starts as a defender on the back line. She notched three goals and three assists during her career, helping the team to two conference tournament appearances.

Some of the things that stand out for Nicole during her playing days ââ'¬" travel, team and school of life.

"My main motivation for making it into the playing 11 was the travel. Never would it be easier to travel so much across the whole country. Utah in my freshman year was one example. We had our final season game there and stayed a whole week until the tournament began. It was one of the greatest memories of my LA Tech time. Being on the road for so many hours was always a very special time for me."

"What really stands out is having been on a team of passionate, dedicated, competitive and ambitious, yet humble, grateful and supportive girls with the right attitude and growth mindset. We loved what we did and did what we loved."

"My playing days were a life school. Coach Sherry taught us that everyone has to work hard for success, but also that everything is possible with the right attitude. He challenged us not only physically, but mentally. He managed to bring our survival spirit out of us and fight for what we love. Thereby, he prepared us for life."

On the academic side, Nicole could not get enough learning about English culture, history, economics and politics despite never being an eager reader and more of a numbers person.

Despite the challenges of keeping up with the English speakers, she ended up earning a bachelor's degree in Modern Languages with a concentration in English and French Literature.

She did so, graduating with a 3.92 GPA while earning Academic All-WAC in 2012 and Second Team C-USA All-Academic in 2013.

"I received so much support and encouragement from my English professors and friends that I carried through my English degree. Doing this as the only non-English speaker gave me a lot of confidence to continue an international career."

Part III ââ'¬" London

In Nicole's last quarter at Louisiana Tech, her English curriculum had a course about applying to grad schools. The professors forced the class to think about what's next after graduation.

This ended up being one of the most important classes for the future of Nicole's professional career.

"For me, it was clear that I would continue with a masters. I could not have afforded to stay in the United States without a scholarship and going back to Switzerland with a US degree was rather difficult. So I started researching about English universities and found a program at a top school (Imperial College London) which raised my interest."

She applied not having much to lose. With her international experience, her athletic and educational performance history and her internships in Switzerland, she was an ideal candidate (and the only one not coming from an Ivy League school).

"Having my boyfriend living in London and being accepted to one of the top-ranked schools made London the perfect place to start a new challenge. The city was so international, multi-cultural, big, soccer-mad, closer to home and with so much to do."

Together with the previous internships at a Swiss bank and the Master of Science in Management at Imperial College London made for the perfect bridge from literature into the business world as a digital banking consultant at Capco.

"I consult with banks on how they should integrate new technologies like machine learning and robotics in collaboration with design to improve the customer experience and become a companion of life like Facebook rather than the old money institution."

Her office is in the silicon roundabout, surrounded by start-ups, innovation, new and emerging technologies.

While on projects, she gets to work on client site to help them solve specific business problems. Most of these clients reside in London, but she has also traveled to places like Mexico, Argentina and France for work.

For Nicole, none of this would have been possible without the impact that Ruston and Louisiana Tech had on her, personally and professionally.

"Ruston was a safe environment to learn, grow and adapt to the international way of living. Without Ruston, it would have been an extremely difficult start and culture shock in the big city of London."

Don't worry. She still finds time to play soccer with her male colleagues at Capco. Her mother is still a keen follower of LA Tech Soccer so she keeps her in the loop on the team.

Last summer, she even back to Ruston for a wedding of one of her closest ex-teammates and friend when her whole freshman group was able to reunite.

"It is difficult to talk regularly given the distance and different routes we have all taken, but they know what an immense impact they had on my life and how grateful I am for their support and love throughout my three years at LA Tech."