BIG RED ATHLETICS
Service, sports and Schwarzenegger filled student-athletes' summer
Chris Frendl '10, Mike Rossidis 09 and Drew Baustian '10 are three of the five members of the mens rowing team who represented the U.S. in the FISA World Rowing Under-23 Championships in Racice, Czech Republic. See larger image
For Cornell student-athletes, the summer brings to mind a quote from rocker Warren Zevon -- "I'll sleep when I'm dead."
While the school year is hectic with classes, practices, competitions and community service, the off season is just as crazy. Athletes have strength and conditioning workout programs to continue in the off season, and they also come to Cornell for the many other experiences the university opens up to them.
That's why this past summer, student-athletes built houses, volunteered in other countries and explored potential careers, making a difference for themselves and others in just three short months.
Hockey senior player Brendon Nash flexes his muscles with two children from a school in the Dominican Republic. See larger image
Community service
Following the spring semester, men's hockey senior Brendon Nash was among a group of Cornell coaches, students and alumni who made a trip to the Dominican Republic to improve living conditions in an impoverished town.
The group helped lay the foundation for a nurses' clinic and a playing field for the town's children, constructed a building to house the town's water generator to protect it from rain and theft, and enclosed a well to safeguard it from contamination.
"All the digging for the foundations had to be between three and four feet into the ground because of the storms and the beating that the weather gives," Nash says. "Everything we did had to be done with shovels and wheelbarrows."
While members of the men's ice hockey team kicked off the summer with a service project, Big Red fencer Rebecca Hirschfeld ended hers in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, traveling with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, in partnership with Cornell Hillel.
The JDC has been sending groups of students to Ukraine since 2005. For each project, students spend 10 days volunteering and meeting with community leaders and local Jewish youth to grapple with the challenges the community faces.
"I would go anywhere to help out, really," says Hirschfeld, "But … I am part Ukrainian and I am learning Russian and have many friends from the Ukraine. … I am also Jewish, and we aided the Jewish community there, so that was another aspect that was appealing to me."
Big Red basketball player Lauren Benson (No. 25) spent part of her summer touring Europe with USA Athletes International. See larger image
Summer sports
Each summer, Big Red basketball player Lauren Benson has done something to improve her game, and this past summer was no different. The senior point guard kicked off her vacation by participating in a European tour with USA Athletes International. She, along with 10 other Division I women's basketball players, traveled to Austria, the Czech Republic and Italy to play seven games against foreign competition.
"From the games and travel to all the new people I met, the trip to Europe was an unbelievable experience," says Benson.
Several members of the men's and women's rowing teams also enjoyed productive summers participating with the U.S. national team.
Jeannie Friedman, Anna Psiaki and Tracy Eisser were all invited to participate in the Women's National Team Freshman Camp, held June 14-20 in Ithaca, while five members of the men's team qualified to represent the United States in the FISA World Rowing Under-23 Championships, from July 23-26 in Racice, Czech Republic.
Senior Singen Elliott rowed in the men's heavyweight quad, while Michael Rossidis '09 and seniors Drew Baustian and Christopher Frendl competed in the men's heavyweight four with coxswain. Sophomore Tom Davidson qualified in the lightweight men's pair.
Following the trials, all five rowers headed to Racice to begin preparations for the championship.
Followers of the Big Red women's ice hockey program are familiar with the exploits of junior Rebecca Johnston, who has taken time off from the Big Red over the last two seasons to compete internationally for Team Canada. With the 2010 Winter Olympics just a few months away, Johnston has taken a year's leave from school to pursue her dream of representing Canada in February in Vancouver.
Johnston reported to Calgary in early August for the Canadian national team camp, but like any elite athlete, her training started well before her arrival in Calgary.
"After the semester at Cornell, I had only a week to rest before I had to depart for Calgary for a month-long camp, known as 'boot camp,'" she says. "All of the workouts were tough, mentally and physically ... but to be able to represent my country on our soil would be the dream of a lifetime!"
Cornell junior football player Doug Dolan with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger; Dolan worked as an intern in the governors Office of Constituent Affairs. See larger image
Internships
For Cornell junior football player Doug Dolan, the summer was less about running crossing routes and more about answering phone calls and e-mails. But he wasn't keeping up with his friends -- Dolan was working as an intern in the Office of Constituent Affairs for the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
One of his key responsibilities was reading and responding to mail addressed to the governor and answering the phone for the governor's office, speaking directly with citizens.
"This summer has been a very interesting and exciting time to be an intern in the state capital, as California is in an unprecedented budget crisis," Dolan says. "As a government major, this internship has been extremely interesting yet, more importantly, has given me a firsthand look at the inner workings of government in our nation's most populous state."
Cornell field hockey tri-captain Katie Kirnan also found herself on the West Coast this summer, working for Industry Entertainment Partners, a TV production company in Hollywood. She found out about IEP through Cornell in Hollywood, a program that assists Cornell students who wish to work in Hollywood.
Kirnan's primary duty involved writing script coverage: reading a script, writing a synopsis of it and then providing an opinion.
"It's always exciting when I begin a new script, because I never know what I'm going to be reading," Kirnan says. "How cool would it be if I read the next 'Office Space' or 'Star Wars?'"