Being Visible

Princeton University has 1,000 varsity athletes, and probably none of them can make themselves as invisible as Grace Baylis has been able to these last four years.

Football players, fencers, hockey players, men’s lacrosse players – they play with their heads masked by helmets, rendering them in their own way invisible to fans in the stands. There is one position, though, one position in any sport that takes it to a whole different level.

Field hockey goalie.

Grace Baylis played 5,293 minutes in her Princeton career, leading the team to three Final Fours and, most recently, the NCAA championship game. She did all this covered from head to toe in padding, rendering her protected from the hard field hockey ball that is regularly fired at her and at the same time completely unrecognizable as she played to even her closest family and friends.

Being invisible as a field hockey goalie is one thing. Feeling invisible on a campus that seems to be in constant motion is another.

And so Baylis, experienced in the former, has worked tirelessly on another one of her passions, one that addressed the issue of the latter. The results have been stunning.

Baylis, a member of the executive team of the Student-Athlete Wellness Leaders (SAWLs), has been one of the driving forces behind the debut of Princeton’s “Pause Wall,” which now proudly hangs in the Caldwell Field House. In a world that rarely slows down, the “Pause Wall” exists to encourage those who walk past it to do just that.

“The biggest question was what did we want people to feel when they looked at it,” the London native says in her English accent. “Should it just be focused on mental health or wellness in general? We kept saying that if we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it properly. And I think we achieved that.”

The wall, which sits inside the Caldwell entrance closest to Weaver Track and Field Stadium, encourages those who walk past it to stop – “Pause” – and reflect. There are messages of support and inspiration, and visitors are able to leave their own messages as well. There are also resources about services available in all areas of mental health.

It’s a wall whose goal is to get everyone who walks by it to take a deep breath and, most importantly, understand that they are not alone. Baylis and the SAWLs worked with Student-Athlete Services on the project, with a grant from TigerWell, a Princeton initiative that supports campus well-being.

“The grant got us kick started," Baylis says. "There were a lot of challenges, but we had a clear vision of what we wanted the wall to stand for. My favorite thing about it probably is the flexibility to engage with it all the time. But everyone doesn’t need to do that to reap the benefits. You’re going to see it. When you walk past it, maybe you’ll notice three or four positive messages.”

Baylis is a walking positive message. She is a great success story, in many ways a representative of everything Princeton University is trying to be.

She is the first person in her family to attend college, not just in the United States but anywhere. She is tuned in throughout the entire campus community. She is very much engaged in leaving Princeton a better place than she found it.

And how did she find it?

She grew up in south London as a soccer player, and it wasn’t until she was 14 that she began to play field hockey.

“That was sort of late to come to the sport,” she says. “I was so desperate to make the team that I agreed to play the only position they needed – goalkeeper. When it came time to go to college, I’d known so many girls who had come to the States to play soccer. I thought I had a better chance with field hockey, especially being a goalkeeper.”

And so she reached out to schools and then came with her father to visit.

“It didn’t matter where else we looked,” she says. “Princeton just took my breath away the minute I walked on campus. I never thought I’d be able to come here. My dad and I were just blown away by it.”

She’d go on to become a four-year starter on a team that regularly played into championship weekend. She was part of two Ivy League championships, and the two years the Tigers didn’t win the league, they still reached the Final Four.

This year went one step further, and she ended her career in the NCAA championship game.

“It’s been an incredible experience,” she says. “If you asked me before the season if we were going to be as good as last year, I would have said no. But we developed. The last four or five weeks I would have said we could do it. We said ‘what do we want to achieve?’ Our No. 1 goal was the national title. You have to believe you can do it to put it in your goals.”

A Woodrow Wilson School major, she’s not 100 percent sure of her future plans. Her mark here at Princeton, though, is pretty well set, beyond just being a four-year starter on a national powerhouse. Her legacy here will also include the “Pause Wall.”

“Jess Deutsch was the one to first suggest it,” Baylis says. “I said that this was very cool - and something we need. We were talking every day. We put together a working group. We even drew designs on paper. Sure, at Princeton there is pressure. I’m lucky I had my team. Everyone is there for you. Princeton Athletics supports you, lets you know you can smile and pause and think about the things that are positive. That’s what the wall is about. What can I write that’s positive for someone else? I hope that it works for people. I’m really sure that it will.”