We’re all aware of the huge workload and academic rigor that entails studying at CMU. But imagine balancing that with a varsity sport, being a teaching assistant for one of the school’s hardest classes, double-majoring, and more….and you’ve got Felicia Wang. As a member of CMU’s varsity swim team, Felicia is used to this balancing act. Her accomplishments in the pool include being a school record holder in the 100 breastroke and a competitor at the Division III NCAA championships. As for outside of the pool, she is currently a double-major in Business and Human-Computer Interaction and serves as a teaching assistant for 15-110 (Principles of Computing). While she’s definitely got enough on her plate, she was still able to find a few minutes to talk:
1. What organizations/clubs/activities/extracurriculars are you involved with at CMU? Do you have any major accomplishments within those activities?
I’m a swimmer for the varsity team at CMU. I’ve been competing since I was six years old so it’s kind of become part of my lifestyle. It can be challenging sometimes considering that training and competition take up approximately 20 hours of our time per week, but at the end of the day, it’s nice to have the support of my teammates and also another aspect of college outside of academics where I can have meaningful, concrete goals to pursue. Last season I was very lucky to have the opportunity to compete at the NCAA DIII Championships where I finally broke my own personal record after a four year plateau as well as the CMU school record.
I also love my campus job as a Teaching Assistant for course 15-110, Principles of Computing with CMU’s School of Computer Science. I feel very fortunate to be able to have this kind of experience since it’s something so unique to college and it made me realize how much I enjoy teaching. Both the faculty and my fellow TAs on the staff are also very fun and passionate people to work with. Most of all I think it’s pretty cool to play a small part in my students’ education and college experience.
2. What is your favorite thing (or memories) about CMU?
My favorite thing about CMU is that this school is not only so diverse in the different majors and fields of study that we offer here but also very deep in almost everything that it does. I’m a double major in Business Administration and Human-Computer Interaction, which means that I’m required to study a lot of different areas – finance, economics, statistics, psychology, computer science, design – and every single one of my professors has accomplished extremely impressive things in his/her field. It’s cool to know that no matter what you’re doing here, there’s someone who’s had the same experiences that you’re having now and they’ve gone on to accomplish really amazing things.
3. Do you have any random fun facts?
I was lucky enough to attend the 2008 Beijing Olympics and actually got tickets to Michael Phelps’ 100 Butterfly final in which he won gold by a hundredth of a second.
4. What are your passions?
After 18 years of living in Southern California, I finally discovered surfing this past summer and I absolutely love it. I also love skiing (that I’ve been doing since I was seven), cooking, and traveling. My parents are big travelers so I’ve been to well over 20 different countries, mostly across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.