Tariq Haitami

Seattle native Tariq Haitami is a complex young man of many talents. As well as being a gifted student working toward a degree in nursing at North Seattle College, he’s a talented semi-pro soccer player hoping to pursue a career as a professional athlete after college. In his limited spare time, he is now also working as a Peer Mentor and Seattle Promise Ambassador for Seattle Colleges, where he took time out of his busy schedule to chat with us about his life experiences. 

A soccer player since an early age, Haitami credits his mother for getting him into the sport. “I was a super quiet kid with asthma who preferred staying indoors with a book, but my mom got me out of the house and playing. Even after my first game I thought, ‘I’m pretty good at this, I may as well keep this up’.” 

This proved a prescient decision: by age 13 he’d joined a local league with his father, where he was competing – and holding his own – against college students and adults. He also played for his high school, Roosevelt, until surgery in his sophomore year. And then the onset of the COVID pandemic temporarily sidelined his plans. After missing a year and a half due to the pandemic, Haitami redoubled his efforts and turned semi-pro shortly after graduating. 

While he’s currently on the injured list and recovering from surgery, Haitami is already looking forward to getting back on the field and continuing his mission to turn pro. In the meantime, he’s focusing on school and completing the prerequisites to transfer to a nursing program at a local university. “A lot of people on my team are playing soccer and going to school sort-of on the side,” he says. “But I’m going to be doing both full time soon, so I can see where each path takes me first.” 

And with three younger sisters, his parents had warned him they wouldn’t be able to pay for his entire college tuition, so they encouraged him to try for a scholarship. “Without it I probably would have tried to grind it out on my own but taking advantage of Promise has turned out to be a really good decision.” 

In his rare free time outside of soccer, school and his other responsibilities, Haitami enjoys spending time with his family, and enjoys collecting colognes and fragrances. The avid collector says, “A lot of people don’t like going through the perfume section of the duty-free at airports, but I kind of love it, I’m not going to lie. It’s a fun hobby, but it’s an expensive one!”