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Ultimate frisbee offered her a tight-knit circle of friends on the University of Texas campus. And in 2010, when Phillips chased her roots to South Korea to teach English and learn Korean, she immediately felt at home with the \u201cgoofy and celebratory\u201d frisbee community\u2014one made up of newcomers and veterans, expats and natives. She eventually became the co-captain of South Korea\u2019s national team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through ultimate frisbee tournaments, Phillips was able to visit cities like Winnipeg, Italy, and Shanghai and get to know the local culture. Each time she and her teammates traveled to a new city, the hosting country\u2019s team would plan the social agenda for the weekend, showing visitors local spots and offering them places to stay, exemplifying the ultimate frisbee hospitality Phillips has come to love. This \u201cfrisbee tourism,\u201d as she calls it, allowed her to see a new city through the eyes of those who lived there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After roughly two years teaching English and both organizing and playing in ultimate frisbee tournaments in South Korea, Phillips moved to Seattle, where she was drawn to the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. She tried out for a local ultimate frisbee league that happened to be one of the best women\u2019s teams in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was crushed when she was cut from tryouts. \u201cIt shook my sense of identity,\u201d she remembers. \u201cI felt like I wasn\u2019t good enough. I had a habit of measuring self-worth in terms of accomplishments.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2013, following initial disappointment from her first tryout, Phillips began playing for a different team while working for the online entrepreneurial community Startups in Seattle. It was here where she spearheaded Seattle Startup Week, a weeklong event showcasing the city\u2019s up-and-comers. It was also here, in 2013, where she was introduced to WeWork when a few WeWork employees attended Seattle Startup Week while scouting a location in the city. With Phillips heavily involved in the startup scene, those employees asked her to grab coffee\u2014and a few months later, Phillips was hired as WeWork\u2019s first employee in Seattle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over time, it became difficult for Phillips to juggle her job at WeWork with the demanding schedule of club ultimate frisbee. Instead of giving up the sport and relinquishing that part of her identity, Phillips found an ultimate frisbee league with a more flexible schedule, allowing her to play when she can and keep up old friendships through nationwide tournaments. These tournaments make it so that ultimate frisbee checks multiple boxes once again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She\u2019s often reminded of the strong community that surrounds the ultimate frisbee scene. \u201cI have no fear moving anywhere,\u201d she says, for she knows that no matter where she goes, she will foster a community that will make her feel at home. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the \u201cspirit of the game,\u201d Gina Phillips leads the Northwest community<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1716,"featured_media":3000004921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43903,43912],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3000004920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-stories","category-employee-spotlight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n