{"id":110899,"date":"2016-03-30T09:06:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T13:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=110899"},"modified":"2016-03-30T10:14:13","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T14:14:13","slug":"student-athlete-strong-kennedy-meier-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/03\/student-athlete-strong-kennedy-meier-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Student-Athlete Strong: Kennedy Meier"},"content":{"rendered":"

UConn\u2019s student-athletes are often lauded for their on-field or on-court achievements, but there\u2019s an equally important \u2013 often unseen \u2013 dimension to the student-athlete. UConn Today is publishing a series of profiles to highlight the academic prowess of these student-athletes. Follow along as we profile two athletes each month<\/a>, and provide an inside look at the academic pursuits of these high-achieving student-athletes.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Student-athlete<\/a>
Student-athlete Kennedy Meier in a biology lab on March 23, 2016. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kennedy Meier<\/a> \u201916 (CLAS)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hometown:<\/strong> Winnipeg, Manitoba<\/p>\n

Sport:<\/strong> Women\u2019s Swimming & Diving<\/p>\n

Major:<\/strong> Molecular and Cell Biology<\/p>\n

Anticipated graduation:<\/strong> May 2016<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your specialty on the team? <\/strong>I am a backstroker and middle distance freestyler. My main events are the 200m backstroke, 100m backstroke, and the 500m freestyle.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favorite class and why? <\/strong>I\u2019m currently taking a Social Well-Being class that I really enjoy. We\u2019ve been talking about who has the highest levels of happiness and what can we do to increase our happiness; it\u2019s all very interesting. I\u2019m a molecular and cell biology major, so taking a sociology course is very different from what I\u2019m used to, but I really like that being part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences allows me to take courses that have nothing to do with my major. The professor for this course is Bradley Wright, and I really love his enthusiasm and teaching style. The class is discussion-based, so we are able to apply the concepts we\u2019ve learned to our own experiences.<\/p>\n

How do you balance the demands of your sport as well as a full class load? <\/strong>Swimming taught me from a very young age that I needed to be organized in order to balance everything I have going on in life, and I\u2019ve really just carried that over into college. I plan what I need to do and by when, and try my best to stay on top of everything so I can succeed in both the pool and the classroom.<\/p>\n

What does your schedule look like on a typical day during the season? <\/strong>My alarm for a regular day is set for 5:27 a.m. to get to either a 6 a.m. swim or lift on time. We work out from 6 until 7:30 and then grab breakfast before heading to class for the day. Our second workout is at 3:30 and goes until 5:30 p.m. The evening is really our time to do work, and on Mondays and Wednesdays we have a team study hall.<\/p>\n

What are some of your academic accomplishments?\u00a0<\/strong>My sophomore year I won the Women\u2019s Swimming Outstanding Scholar Athlete Award. In 2013 I was named a New England Scholar [having earned at least a 3.7 GPA for each semester], and in 2014 and 2015 I was a Babbidge Scholar [having earned a 4.0 GPA for each semester].<\/p>\n

What is the biggest challenge you face as a student-athlete? <\/strong>One of the biggest challenges student-athletes face is keeping up with academic work while traveling. For away meets, we can spend almost the entire day at the pool, and studying while on a bus or plane is less than an ideal situation. On top of that, we\u2019re in competition mode \u2013 trying to be as focused as possible on our performance in the pool. People may underestimate how hard it is to balance school and swimming under these circumstances.<\/p>\n

Describe someone you\u2019ve met here who has already impacted your future. <\/strong>I think that Coach Goldberg really helped me grow into the person I am today. His reminders to keep things in perspective will stay with me long after I graduate. Something he always stresses is that you can only control what you do, and I think that is really a key way to approach life’s circumstances \u2013 just put your best self forward and let everything else fall into place.<\/p>\n

What does it mean to you to be a Husky? <\/strong>When I think of being a Husky, I really just feel proud. I take pride in receiving such an amazing education and having worked so hard as a part of a collegiate team. It\u2019s become such a large part of my identity and I know, no matter where life brings me, I\u2019ll always be proud to call myself a Husky.<\/p>\n

Where are you headed after graduation? <\/strong>Hopefully to medical school, but first I would like to travel. I\u2019m currently planning a trip to Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Husky swimmer and Babbidge Scholar says one of the biggest challenges student-athletes face is keeping up with academic work while traveling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":110900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1712,2226,2225,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-110899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-clas","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-life","series-student-athlete-strong"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 07:39:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110899"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110905,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110899\/revisions\/110905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/110900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110899"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=110899"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=110899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}