1. How did you get involved in cross-country running?
I started running in seventh grade when my dad said that I should try to do a sport and that cross-country might be fun to try. The first practice I walked a lot and the coach eventually told me and my friends that it was enough for the day (probably because he didn’t feel like waiting all night for us to finish the run).
2. What is your favorite aspect of being a part of the cross-country team?
I love the people I have met through doing the sport. Something about sharing the experience of pushing through the hard days and celebrating the good days really brings you close to your teammates. I am still friends with people I ran with in seventh grade and I’m sure I’ll keep in touch with the girls on the team long after I graduate.
3. Do you any specific goals for your last year on the team?
I would love for our team to make it to nationals. It’s going to be a hard road but I really believe that if we put our minds to it, we can do it. I also want to run closer to the times I ran last year and if we don’t qualify as a team I would like to qualify as an individual. I also just want to enjoy running and my last year; sometimes I get too caught up in the competitiveness and forget that running is fun.
4. How do you balance your time commitment to cross-country with your double major in BCS and film studies?
I think managing time comes easier when you are on a sport. I’ve been doing cross-country and track for so long that I’ve really learned how to get what I need to get done early so that work doesn’t overwhelm me. I have had some pretty work heavy semesters but I think if I wasn’t doing running, I wouldn’t have worked as hard.
5. What other activities are you involved in on campus?
I work in the Rochester Baby Lab, which is a BCS lab in Meliora. We do eye-tracking studies with infants to learn about things like perception and language. Infants learn a lot in their first year of life so we’re trying to unravel how exactly they do that. It’s a lot of fun and I love that I get to see cute kids on a regular basis.