Sandy Smith Chryst ’14: Betting on Herself and Learning Tenacity as a Student Athlete

In her junior year at Hutchison, she got the call from Stanford University in California, offering her a scholarship and a spot on the lacrosse team. She had never considered venturing so far for college, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. She took the chance and pushed herself, playing lacrosse all four years while tackling tough academics.

She admitted it wasn’t easy. “When I was at Hutchison, we were the best lacrosse team in the state, and I was a starter on the best team in the state,“ Chryst said. “When I went to Stanford, everybody was a starter from their high school championship team competing to be a starter at Stanford. It was a challenging transition. On and off the field, I was constantly surrounded by people who were the best at what they were doing, whether training next to an Olympic medal winner in the weight room or sitting next to a friend in class who would go on to start and sell a tech company.

“Hutchison and Stanford taught me that you can’t be afraid to fail or hear ’no.’ Rejection is part of the process, not the end of it. Taking risks, even when the outcome is uncertain, is how growth happens. If you don’t bet on yourself, you can’t expect others to either.”

Learning How to be a Versatile Player

Hutchison’s first varsity lacrosse team was formed in 2002 and won its first lacrosse state championship title in 2007. Chryst started playing lacrosse in 2009, when she was in the seventh grade. She had played soccer and basketball, and she said lacrosse felt like an easy transition to her.

On the lacrosse field, Chryst played as a midfielder, a crucial position for transitioning the ball from defense to offense, or vice versa. A good midfielder is versatile, able to adapt to different game situations, and play on both ends of the field. The position requires speed and strong ball-handling skills, as well as endurance, since midfielders often cover the most ground.

In 2011, Chryst’s freshman year, Hutchison’s varsity team won the Tennessee state championship, then repeated that feat over the next three years. During her senior year, Chryst scored 45 goals and had 14 assists. She was named a U.S. Lacrosse first-team All-American. In all, Hutchison’s lacrosse team has won nine state titles so far.

Chryst remembered that while she was at Hutchison, she excelled at math, but that there was something more valuable than her individual strengths or the specific classes she took. “Hutchison teachers taught me how to think critically and love learning. They encouraged me to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and not always accept things at face value, particularly if I didn’t understand them.”

In college, Chryst didn’t gravitate toward math, but instead chose Stanford’s interdisciplinary Science, Technology, and Society (STS) major. STS enables students to take both technical, hands-on classes, as well as classes that survey the social and historical contexts of science and technology. “What drew me to STS was its focus on asking complex, often unanswerable questions and learning how to grapple with them. I was able to take a variety of classes that focused on critical thinking and creative problem solving, both of which I encountered at Hutchison. Hutchison taught me to question, analyze, and approach problems from multiple perspectives.”

In her junior and senior years at Stanford, she focused on politics and policy, combining her interest in law, international relations, and public policy.

Bringing Herself to the Brink

Chryst admitted that balancing academics and athletics at Stanford tested her. Although she never had a season-ending injury, she had some nagging injuries, particularly in her junior and senior years, that slowed her down.

“Between injuries and not getting the playing time I wanted, I had to adjust and say, ’Okay, if I’m not able to contribute in this way or as much as I want, how else can I contribute value to the team and make this time worth it?’ There were times I questioned quitting lacrosse because it brought me to the brink of myself physically, mentally, and emotionally. I had to stay grounded in why I was doing it and who I was doing it for. Those reasons needed to drive me. My biggest competition was myself, and I had high standards.”

Chryst said there is a mentality to being an athlete that helped her at Hutchison, at Stanford, in law school, and even now professionally. “Being a student-athlete is a huge advantage,“ Chryst explained. “I truly don’t believe I’m the smartest in the room ever, but I think about my work ethic and the hustle to succeed. Law school is one of those places that if you put in the work, you’ll see the reward, but a lot of times it takes stumbling and falling to see that reward. I think people get dissuaded or discouraged when that happens.


A Growing Interest in Law

By virtue of Stanford’s location in the heart of Silicon Valley, many people who attend the school gravitate toward careers in venture capital, which involves investing in emerging technology companies. Chryst thought that might be her path, too. However, another idea began percolating.

While at Stanford, Chryst attended some talks at the law school, and her interest started growing. She also remembered what her mother often told her: that she would be a good lawyer. Her mother would know. She works as a nurse at a law firm in Memphis consulting on medical malpractice cases.

After college, Chryst took a job in San Francisco at T3 Advisors, a commercial real estate firm, and she recalled spending a lot of time on the phone with lawyers. She also met, through the family of Keller Chryst—her boyfriend at the time and now husband—the general counsel of the San Francisco 49ers. “I connected with Hannah Gordon and picked her brain about being a woman in the legal field,“ Chryst explained. “She had gone to Stanford Law School, and she’s the one who encouraged me to go for it. I saw how successful she was as a lawyer, but also how she carried herself, her intellect, her legal acumen, even just sitting across the table. That’s one person I wanted to be like.”

Chryst decided to bet on herself again. She moved home, took the LSAT, and applied to law school.

She started at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, which she praised as an excellent school in teaching the foundations of the law. She then decided to transfer to Harvard Law School, where she discovered a competitive environment much like Stanford. “My professors were some of the most cited constitutional scholars and respected voices in their field,“ she recalled. “They were former Supreme Court Justices, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and partners at top-notch law firms—people who not only studied and taught law but also helped shape it. I was surrounded by people who had accomplished things that you feel like you can only dream of.”

She admitted that the workload at Harvard was not for the faint of heart, but that it was one of the most rewarding experiences she has had.



An Appealing Role as a Judicial Law Clerk

In 2021, before she had completed her first year at Harvard, she applied for a highly competitive clerkship with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Louisville, Kentucky. Her bet paid off yet again. She graduated from Harvard in 2023, worked for a year at a New York-based law firm, and then started the clerkship in 2024 for Judge John K. Bush. Federal appellate courts review cases from the district courts to ensure that the law was applied correctly in all different kinds of cases—civil, criminal, immigration, and appeals from federal agencies.

“My day mostly revolves around legal research and writing, reading transcripts, parties’ briefs, district court decisions, and relevant case law. We become subject matter experts on the legal issues in each case fairly quickly. My job is to help the judge come to an informed and well-reasoned decision on questions such as whether the district court applied the law correctly as articulated by the law of the circuit and the Supreme Court.”

Several times per year, the judges and their clerks travel to Cincinnati for oral arguments. Chryst helps prepare the judge, ensuring he is familiar with critical parts of the record and equipped to ask informed questions.

The value of the clerkship is immeasurable, she explained: not only do clerks get a chance to see written advocacy, but they also get to witness what effective oral advocacy looks like and develop a sense for what resonates with judges.

“It’s a very collaborative job because you’re constantly discussing difficult legal questions with your co-clerks,“ Chryst explained. “From Hutchison to Stanford, to Harvard, and now in this clerkship, I’ve always been drawn to environments that involve intimate, high-performing teams. That’s where excellence is built, when you surround yourself with people who want to be excellent or want to excel in their personal and professional lives. It raises the bar on your own performance, pushing you to grow, contribute more, and aim to be the best version of yourself.”

In terms of learning about law, she also truly enjoys being able to wrestle with and help decide tough questions. “I think the most rewarding aspect of this job is the breadth of legal issues that we see,“ Chryst said. “I’m not the decision-maker. The judges are. But the fact that I get a front row seat to that process is something I’ll carry with me throughout my career going forward.”