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Naomi Chaidez had two goals in high school: Follow in her dad’s footsteps in becoming an accountant and to play college softball.

When it came time to pick where she would achieve that second goal and pitch at the college level, she had her choice between a large Midwestern university and 91亚色传媒.

Though picking the right school for its softball program was important so, too, was her other goal of getting a quality business education.

“I knew the classroom sizes were way smaller than if I were to have gone to a bigger school,” she says. “And knew that the education was going to be better.”

Recruited by SU after scouts saw her play with a travel team near her home in Orange County, California, Chaidez was one of the Redhawks’ pitchers that for four years opposing teams had to face at the plate. While baseball pitchers throw a few innings and don’t pitch again for five days, softball pitchers are known for their durability.

“In softball, you throw two games in a day and then they're like, ‘OK, go again tomorrow,’” she says.

Chaidez started her freshman year and was a constant presence through her final season in 2025.

As a pitcher, she puts less value on how fast the balls whizz past batters and more on how dramatically they arc and move, all while carefully avoiding getting hit.

“My mentality is that speed doesn't matter if you can't spin the ball,” she says. “So my focus has always just been on more spin than speed.”

That determination and creativity extended into the classroom, with Chaidez receiving a nomination to serve as class valedictorian and was named to the Academic All-WAC team in 2023.

Among her favorite classes in the Albers School of Business and Economics is Principles of Accounting I: Financial, taught by Accounting Department Chair Gabriel Saucedo, PhD, CPA.

“I know it's a class that so many people dread because every business major has to take it at some point,” she says. “I enjoyed the content, enjoyed the professor and I think it gave me reassurance that accounting is what I wanted to do.”

Apart from her focus on accounting, Chaidez says the Jesuit values and the inclusive nature of campus made an impact on her as a person.

“I feel like I was exposed to so many different backgrounds and different points of views,” she says. “They really emphasized the whole person and not only what you can do to make yourself better, but just how you can be a better person overall.”

But even with the rigorous schedule of schoolwork and athletics she still found time to work as an accounting tutor at Albers and joined Beta Alpha Psi, an international honor society for accounting students.

After graduation, Chaidez is heading back home to Anaheim to intern at Crowe over the summer and then start graduate school for a master’s degree in professional accountancy at the University of California, Irvine, on a scholarship from Deloitte. 

Her father, Tony, is now a CFO, something she shares as a goal after she becomes a CPA.

“Long-term, I will hopefully work for a Big Four accounting firm for a few years, or as long as I feel like it, and then maybe switch over to industry and then work my way up from there,” she says.

Her advice to incoming students is for them to take advantage of the opportunities that come their way—take the risk—be it developing relationships with classmates, professors and professionals in your field or taking advantage of a sunny day to spend it with friends.

“It’s better than looking back and regretting it,” she says. “Whether school-related or just friend-related, just anything, put yourself out there.”