Vibrant DJ, dancer, track field runner and doctor Chelsea Sloan is a product of the infamous gang-infested Hanover Park in Cape Town.
Sloan has come a long way from fighting her way out of the statistic of a bare minimum wage job. Despite growing up in a volatile environment, she lacked nothing.
She described her parents as supportive, adding that her mother made sure her every need was met. She also said her upbringing served as a tool to become street smart.
She had mirrors of who she did not want to be, stating that she intentionally chose a different path in life.
The talented 25-year-old Sloan raised her gratitude to God for the wisdom He granted her in order to utilise her talents to push past Hanover Park.
Taking it back to her breakthrough moment, she said being a track and field runner was her green card to obtaining a bursary.
“I had to work extra hard to maintain it. My running times and academics had to be top tier to keep the bursary in order to study at the University of the Western Cape,” she said.
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She recently joined hands with the Nike family as a rising talented DJ alongside three other men Domnic Hurd, Toroh O Wano, and DJ Double D.
In an interview with Sunday World recently, Sloan detailed her experience with Nike as short, sweet, and nothing but amazing.
She added that as a track and field athlete, it was her goal to be sponsored by Nike.
“Currently, I am being recognised for who I am as an holistic being, both an athlete and an entertainer. This is more than I imagined.”
Explaining what the Nike platform has done for her, Sloan said: “Not anything huge yet, I have only started working with them recently.
“However, I appreciate being recognised purely for who I am and what I want to do with my life.”
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Detailing how her 24 hours are managed, she said each day is different and that she takes it one day at a time.
She explained: “There are 24 hours in a day and I divide those into eight hours, of which eight of the hours I try my best to sleep.
“If not, I am up and going, doing something to make one aspect of myself [better], even if it’s 1% more growth than I was the day before.
“It is honestly about progressive growth of every aspect that makes me who I am. Every discipline requires different sides of me.
“As a medical professional, I don’t think about myself. It is who I can be for others and those who need their family members back.
“As an athlete, because I’m a sprinter, everything that I do is an outcome for just me. Because I run that race alone.
“As a deejay and dancer, I honestly just live through the musical gift that God gave me and celebrate that gift in the way I express myself.”
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Sloan’s message to a bruin kindt (coloured child).
“Your circumstances don’t define you, you define you, the version you see in your head of who you are outside of what has been handed to you, don’t give up on her or him.
“Do everything in your power to become that person. Nothing is handed to you, but nobody can deny hard work.”
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