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Buff athletes and athletics- Graduation 2018 (Ceremony- 8:30 AM, 5/10) & Academic Achievements

AztecBuff

AztecBuff

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Thought I'd create this thread for us to:
  • Accumulate anything anyone sees related to the Buff athletes graduating (articles, twitter or instagram posts, etc.).
  • Also, since a lot of academic awards and info also comes out this time of year, figured this is also a good place anything for us to also post anything we hear of academic achievement(s) regarding any Buff athletes (graduating or not), or athletics and academics in general.
(I also did this kind of thread in prior years, with last year's thread being - https://www.allbuffs.com/threads/bu...ny-8-30-am-5-12-academic-achievements.126463/ .)

Note- The commencement speaker this year is CU alum and current Governor of Oregon Kate Brown.

Congrats to ALL the Buffs graduating, athletes AND non-athletes alike, for this personal landmark accomplishment. Hope all goes well in your futures!

Links to Live Stream - No link(s) yet, but note on http://www.colorado.edu/commencement/ webpage says "Stay tuned, livestream links coming soon!".
Commencement homepage - https://www.colorado.edu/commencement/spring-ceremony

Social media- If others don't do it 1st, I'll try to post any social media that is student-athlete relevant in this thread. However, If you just want to see words from and/ or photos of happy graduates and their families, whether athletes or not- In the commencement homepage, folks are asked to hashtag #ForeverBuffs in their tweets (and I assume instagrams), so assume that will be another way to follow along with the general festivities from the general graduating student- side. (Assume there will also be a lot of #gobuffs and #skobuffs used.)
Links - https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/foreverbuffs/ , https://twitter.com/search?q=#Foreverbuffs&src=typd&vertical=default&f=tweets
 
To start with, loved this article on Buff soccer star Joss Orejel, the 1st college graduate in her family!



Direct link to article - http://cubuffs.com/news/2018/5/8/soccer-buffs-orejel-adds-diploma-to-her-list-of-firsts.aspx

"
BOULDER — Joss Orejel admits "a little part" of her has always thrived when people have doubted her.

"It makes me strive just that much harder," Orejel said. "I think it actually makes me work a little harder and makes me want to prove them wrong."
Orejel will add to her ever-growing bucket of proof this week. The former Colorado soccer standout will graduate with a degree from the College of Media, Communication and Information, making her the first in her family to earn a university diploma.

It will be the latest in a series of firsts for Orejel, the first-born child of immigrants who grew up doing what people around her suggested couldn't be done — beginning with athletic pursuits.

"I was always the first woman in my family to do sports," Orejel said. "In the Hispanic culture, sports are generally considered to be kind of masculine — women shouldn't be playing sports. It's looked down on in a way. But I did it anyway because I enjoyed it and I was good at it."
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"
BOULDER — When it comes to academics and athletics, Colorado skiers Petter Reistad and Petra Hyncicova are firm believers that the two go hand-in-hand.
In fact, the two CU All-American skiers believe that not only do academics and athletics go well together, the time demands, discipline and dedication that both pursuits require also help increase their chances of success in both.

"Sport teaches you to perform under pressure," said CU skier Petter Reistad. "That is great preparation for school and for a demanding professional life. You are trained to expect to succeed, and you take that experience with you to the classroom and, hopefully, into the professional world when you graduate."
Reistad, a native of Norway who will graduate with a degree in finance this week from the Leeds School of Business, no doubt succeeded in both realms during his time at Colorado.

In his three years of competing in Nordic events for the Buffs, Reistad earned six All-America honors, including a second-place finish in this year's 10K classical race at the NCAA Championships. At the same time, he also compiled a 3.956 grade-point average, helping him to become one of four winners this year of the Morgan Family Buff Club Scholar-Athlete Award.

"There are really many similarities between academics and athletics," Reistad said. "The Leeds School of Business has been great in preparing me with deadlines, tests, homework, teamwork. It is very much like athletics in that regard. When you have the athletic component in there as well, you learn to prioritize and make sure you give yourself time for everything. The combination has been super valuable."

The storyline has been much the same for Reistad's teammate Petra Hyncicova, who is also graduating this spring, with a degree in integrative physiology. The Czech Republic native left her mark in the CU record books with seven All-America honors — including a pair of NCAA championships in 2017 (freestyle and classical) — as well as an appearance in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics earlier this year, representing the Czech Republic.

In the classroom, Hyncicova was part of a women's ski team that last fall had the highest team GPA in the athletic department for the fifth semester in a row (3.520), as well as the top combined cumulative GPA (3.476). She was also a two-time member of the National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team for maintaining above a 3.5 cumulative grade point average and competing at the RMISA Championships/NCAA West Regional.

"Being a student-athlete is learning how to work under pressure and be at your best under pressure," Hyncicova said. "Honestly, I think we are maybe better than other students when it comes to time management because we have to figure out when to study, when to train, when to recover and how to put all those things together. I think we learn to work better under pressure. The feeling you get when you are done with everything is the best, because even though you are tired, you know you achieved something. It's the same in sport — you have that one goal and you want to get it."

Both Reistad and Hyncicova utilized their time at Colorado to get as much experience as possible in their chosen fields.

Last summer, Reistad served an internship with Norwegian bank DNB, the largest bank in the country. He worked with risk management, an area he said had its share of pressure — but also something that he enjoyed.

"I worked in a department of experts," Reistad said. "The people working next to each other couldn't do each other's job because they were so specialized. You had to do your job very well because you couldn't depend on a lot of help from other people, but they were depending on you to do a good job. You had to know how to work under pressure, which is something you are used to doing because of skiing."

Hyncicova, who worked as a concurrent bachelor's/master's student at Colorado, had the opportunity to work in the Integrative Physiology Department's Locomotion Lab with Dr. Rodger Kram. There, she helped continue a study on the relationship between the weight of ski poles to metabolic cost.

"It's been very interesting and challenging," Hyncicova said. "You have to solve so many different problems. It could be technical or it could be an error … it might be something not even to do with skiing. The best part was solving problems, finding out why something worked or didn't work."

Both skiers also said learning the art of teamwork through athletics is another skill that translates directly to the academic and professional world.
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Congrats to track and field's (heptathlete) Maja Wichhart-Donzo!



"
BOULDER – Junior track and field star Maja Wichhart-Donzo received the Arthur Ashe Junior Sports Scholar award last week. The award is given by Issues: A Diverse Look at Higher Education, and is in memory of tennis star, Arthur Ashe.

Ashe's commitment to education and love for the game of tennis are what inspired this award. It honors undergraduate student-athletes every year that excel academically and athletically, are involved in their community and have a passion for student leadership.

Wichhart-Donzo grew up in Catonsville, Maryland, and is studying international affairs and is pre-med, while maintaining an impressive 3.65 GPA. She was named to the Academic All-MPSF team in both 2017 and 2018. She not only is committed to her education, but also to being a good leader and role model to her peers.

She spent last summer abroad in Botswana studying global public health. "Honestly, it was one of the best experiences of my life," Wichhart-Donzo said. Her days were spent shadowing in different clinics, which she enjoyed because her goal is to pursue a career in international medicine. "Something like Doctors Without Borders would be amazing." She said she learned quite a bit about the culture while she was there too. She stayed with a host family so she got to experience what it is like to live like a local. She also took a Setswana language and culture class.

In between practices and a rigorous academic schedule, she was able to volunteer at the Family Learning Center during the fall semester. "It was sort of hard with my schedule, but I would go in every week for an hour and a half to two hours, and help middle school aged students with their homework, like math and reading and writing essays," she said. This summer she is looking forward to volunteering at the Boulder County Aids Project.

At the Bryan Clay Invitational in April, Wichhart-Donzo recorded several personal records while competing in the heptathlon. She clocked in at 14.12 in the women's 100 meters, the third fastest time ever run by a heptathlete in the heptathlon. She just competed in the Pac-12 Combined Events Championship over the weekend, placing fifth and earning four points for the Buffs as they go into the rest of the Pac-12 Championships this weekend. Wichhart-Donzo will be competing in the high jump and the triple jump.
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