Natalie Loureda ’23: Raised to Believe in Possibilities
Growing up in her father’s South Florida taekwondo school, Natalie Loureda learned discipline, resilience and the courage to dream big. At UCF, she discovered those lessons could take her far beyond the mat.
Natalie Loureda ’23, a sports media personality, social media influencer and entrepreneur, doesn’t remember a childhood without taekwondo, the Korean martial art characterized by fast, dynamic kicking techniques and disciplined philosophy.
Some of her earliest memories are of riding from one activity to the next with her sisters as their mother hurried them from dance class to the family dojo. Lunch happened in the car. Homework happened between practices. Weekends belonged to tournaments.
“It was just normal,” Loureda says.
Looking back, she realizes it was anything but.
Her father, a successful fighter who owned a taekwondo school in South Florida, believed martial arts could change lives. While many schools focused on after-school programs, he dreamed much bigger.
“My dad cared more about the Olympic dream than making kids tired and just babysitting,” Loureda says. “He wanted to really make these kids the Olympians.”
He expected the same commitment from his three daughters.
“My dad thought he was going to have boys,” Loureda says with a laugh. “Instead, he got three really tough girls.”
Their mother made sure resilience wasn’t the only lesson they learned.
“My mom was always making sure that we were balanced,” Loureda says. “She’d drive us from ballet, and we’d already have our taekwondo uniforms on with our ballet tights underneath.”
Together, her parents created a childhood built around discipline, education and possibility.
There were sacrifices.
Family dinners were rare. Most of the family’s resources went toward training and travel. Natalie admits she didn’t have many friends outside the taekwondo community because the sport consumed nearly every hour of her day.
But she never questioned it. She believed.
“My dad set high expectations because he believed in what I could achieve,” she says. “It took time for me to embrace that belief myself, but it ultimately shaped the confidence I have today.”
By high school, Loureda had become one of the nation’s top taekwondo athletes, representing the United States internationally and pursuing that Olympic dream that had shaped much of her life.
Then, a family crisis made the entire Loureda family shift their focus.
“A big reason my taekwondo career slowed down was when my mom was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia,” Loureda says. “It was a really difficult time for our family, and my sisters and I stepped away from the sport for a while. It was also the first time we really had to lean on our community for support, after always being the family that others leaned on. Thankfully, my mom recovered after receiving a stem cell transplant, and around that time my focus began shifting toward academics and eventually UCF.”
Loureda says her mother had always prioritized education, and when she enrolled at UCF, she began pouring her efforts into all that UCF had to offer.
“I took a pause from my sport and really just focused on myself … and my academics for the first time in my life.”
The change surprised her. “I noticed that at UCF, I was thriving because the environment was such a happy place.”
Growing up in South Florida, Loureda says, “living in a Miami bubble is really a bubble.”
At the UCF Barry S. Miller College of Business, she met classmates from around the world.
“In my sport, I got to see diversity, but I would fight against them,” she says. “I wouldn’t get to become friends with them.”
College expanded more than her education. It expanded her view of what her future could be.
She earned a degree in management while exploring sports business, entrepreneurship and marketing, discovering that the discipline she’d developed as an athlete could open doors well beyond competition. Loureda also earned a certificate in entrepreneur leadership through the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership.
One conversation with a professor proved especially influential. When Loureda hesitated to pursue a new opportunity, his advice was simple.
“Do it. What’s holding you back?”
She did.
What began as an interest in sports media gradually became much bigger. Long before personal branding became common among athletes, Loureda began creating sports content with a clear purpose: to become a positive voice in a field that often focuses on criticism.
“I want to make an impact in this world by being a positive sports source,” she says. “I want to highlight accomplishments and never bring anybody down.”
She held onto that vision even when almost no one was watching. “At first, I had eight followers,” she says with a smile. “Including my mother.”
Then one video took off.
Today, as a social media influencer, Loureda interviews athletes, covers some of the biggest events in combat sports and partners with major brands, reaching audiences she never imagined as a student. Success on social media, however, isn’t how she measures the journey.
“Every time that I post, I want to make sure that I’m not hurting anyone,” she says. “I’m either uplifting a career, teaching something or inspiring someone.”
Those words sound remarkably similar to the lessons she learned growing up. Her father gave her the courage to pursue extraordinary goals.
Her mother provided the steady foundation that kept her grounded through every success and setback
UCF taught her that sometimes dreams grow into something even bigger than you ever imagined.
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