Quick Facts
Favorite movie: Romantic Comedies
Favorite pre-game music: Pump-up Rap, Eminen - "Lose Yourself"
Favorite pre-game meal: Scrambled eggs, toast and a protein
Favorite place on campus: Duke Gardens
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When and how did you start rowing?
I started rowing when I got to Duke, I didn't actually row in high school but I had always been interested in it, I just lived too far away to actually get started on it. Our novice coach sent out an email to all freshman girls over the summer, before we got here and as soon as I got here, I got in contact with her and got started. That's something I think is really cool about rowing, you could have never touched a boat before your freshman year and by your sophomore year you can be on the varsity roster.
What is something that most people don't know about you?
A lot of people would say I have a pretty laid back personality, but I am huge stress-case, I stress out about t a lot of stuff. I can hide it well, but I am definitely a perfectionist and can freak out about the little things.
Why did you choose Duke?
Since I hadn't rowed before, I chose Duke mostly for academic reasons; it's a great school all around for academics. Also, I am from Seattle, Washington, I wanted to go somewhere kind of far away to experience what it would be like to live in a different place.
What do you consider your greatest accomplishment so far as an athlete?
Finding the ability to elevate myself above the level it takes to just get things done. I think in order to be really successful you to find something within yourself that lets you perform at a level before what everyone else is doing. And I think through rowing over the past three years I have been able to find that within myself. I did sports before I came to college and I was always just kind of competing in the middle and just doing what it took to get it done. But being here I have really found what it means to bring myself up to a level that's above and beyond what you need to just get it done.
What do you still hope to accomplish in the future as an athlete?
I am interested in competing on some national teams, I went to a national identification camp last month and that was really exciting. Hopefully, in the future I could see some national competition. In terms of rowing for Duke, I hope to keep helping press our program forward and help us continue to improve and become more competitive as a program.
How have you changed since your freshman year, both athletically and personally?
I have definitely grown up a lot. I have begun to see what is important. I have been able to prioritize what I should be worried about and what I shouldn't be worried about and what I should be investing my time and what I shouldn't. Freshmen year if I got a bad grade on a test it was kind of the end of the world and now I see that two years later I don't even remember that test. I have realized that that kind of stuff is not going to be what I remember in the years to come, it's my experiences I have had with people I know or classes I have taken and the relationships with professors in those classes. It's not all about the grades; it's about the entire experience as a whole. I think I have definitely learned how to discern what's important and what's not.
The same goes for rowing. My novice year and even last year I was so worried about hitting certain numbers and now I realize its about trying your hardest and always trying to improve. It's not about the numbers; it's about always trying to move forward.
What are your hobbies outside of rowing?
I am very interested in medicine. I love to volunteer at the Duke Hospital; I do a program called oncology recreation therapy. We go around and visit cancer patients and give them a mental and emotional break from their treatment, we have movies for them or we have parties for them. I like to read for pleasure; I think biographies are my favorite thing to read because I love to hear people's stories. I also like to talk to my friends online; a lot of them are at colleges across the country.
What do you want to do after college?
If national competition is a possibility, I would love to take a few years off and do that. In the future at some point, I am definitely pursuing a career in medicine, so medical school is definitely in the not to distant future.
What is your greatest accomplishment outside of rowing?
I would say how I have done so far at Duke and how I was able to apply myself. I had a little bit of a rocky start freshman year but I was able to get it together and pull myself forward. I am constantly striving to improve myself academically, so being able to look at how I was doing freshman year as opposed to how I am doing now is really an accomplishment to me. I think the greatest accomplishment will be graduating from Duke and being able to say, wow, I took those four years and I committed to a very difficult school and a very difficult environment and I was able to successfully get it done.
What was the best advice you ever received from a coach?
Our coaches and coxswains always say "You can do anything for blank number of minutes." I think that really helps me both in rowing and in life. It shows you that nothing is forever, you can be having a really tough time or in rowing you can feel like your body is about to give out but you can always hold on for those last two minutes. I think that is really good advice and I've found I have been able to use that in multiple avenues of life. If I am going through a really tough time academically I know that there will be end and I can hold out.
What is your routine on the day of race?
We get up fairly early, I would say the night before is pretty important. We usually have a boat meeting to get started and we talk about what we would like to achieve during the race. Then afterwards we go to our rooms, I like to listen to some of my pump up music and then I lie in bed and visualize how I would like to perform and pump myself up for it. Then we wake up, have breakfast and during breakfast I like to think about what I would like to accomplish and how I am going to push myself. Then we do our warm up, get pumped up and do a little huddle before we boat-out and use that time to motivate each and establish what we want to establish what we want to do as unit. Then we boat-out and its go time.
What are your expectations for your team this season?
I think we are doing really well, we just got a great group of freshman and they have really helped move our team forward. We are definitely closer this year then I think we have been in the past and that has helped improve our performance overall. I definitely expect come regionals and come ACCs we will definitely perform as well if not better than we have in the past.
Who was your most influential role model?
In life, I would say it was definitely my mother, she has pretty unfailing encouraged me to always be my best in all aspects of my life and has always done so in a truly selfless manor. I can truly say I would have accomplished everything I have accomplished without her.
On the rowing side of things, I would have to say my teammates are extremely influential role models to me. The way we each tackle our individual obstacles, everyday and we all have different personalities and different stuff going in our lives but in the end we are all able to come together and commit to this common goal that we have, that's very inspirational to me. They have a lot of heart and also give me a lot of heart.
What is it like to be part of such a competitive conference?
On the one hand it's very challenging, it obviously feels good to win and so, it's difficult to go up against crews who are so competitive that you have to fight with every last breath you have to even have a shot at it. But on the other hand I think its so beneficial to us, that if we didn't have it we would be able to move ourselves forward the way we have, going up against crews like Virginia and Clemson now we have to bring our A-game 100% of the time, every time we race them and if we don't we don't have a shot. It has really helped to find another level that otherwise you wouldn't have if you were always winning all the time.
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