Princeton University Athletics
Q & A With Susan Rea
December 09, 1999 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 9, 1999
Princeton, N.J. -
Was it important to you that Princeton had a strong women's athletic program in place?
Yes, definitely. When I was choosing schools, I wanted to go somewhere with strong academics as a first priority. The next thing I wanted was a top Division I athletic program, and Princeton offered that with both basketball and soccer, so that was a huge factor.
Did you choose Princeton or did Princeton choose you?
I think it is a mutual thing whenever you are applying to schools. There is definitely recruiting that goes on, but ultimately the choice comes down to you, because you are the one who is actually going to go somewhere. I applied to Princeton and Duke, and chose Princeton in the end.
Did soccer or basketball pursue you or both?
It was both actually, which was pretty interesting because of NCAA rules, where a coach can only call you once a week. The two coaches had to coordinate because it is not per coach, it is per school. When I came out on my recruiting trip, I stayed with a soccer player my first day and the second day with a basketball player. Was leaving California for college important for you?
I wasn't necessarily looking to get away from home, but I did see college as an opportunity to experience a new part of the country, because I will probably end of living in California someday. The chance to come to the East Coast was something nice. I looked at Stanford a bit too because it offered some of the same combination of academics and athletics, like Princeton and Duke had as well, but it wouldn't have been the same going to college five minutes down the road.
Living in Palo Alto, did you think you would end up at Stanford, or did you always know you wanted to go away?
I thought I would stay in California, even through my freshman year in high school. I guess it got later and I started thinking about it a bit more seriously, it felt like I would have not experienced as much staying in California. When I was a lot younger, and we would go and watch the Stanford baseball and women's basketball games, I would think about being out there. It was definitely a possibility. I really did not think about college seriously until the end of my junior year.
How has sports changed your life?
I think the lessons that you learn from being an athlete and being a part of a team, in terms of working with other people, determination and dealing with success and failure—things that are applicable to almost all areas of life. I know that it has made a difference for me in terms of schoolwork, you have to apply a lot of the same qualities. Friendships have been a big part of it. When you play a game with someone you have this immediate bond, so you can form friends through it.
Is there a specific sporting event that you either played in or witnessed that you drew a lot from?
One of the biggest things was actually this year, making it to the NCAA tournament for soccer. It was a huge deal, both for the program, since it had been a while since we had been there, and I think for us seniors in particular. That is a great way to go out, and it was something we had really worked for and had a good season. To be at that level meant a lot to me.
As a kid, why did you choose baseball instead of the traditional girls' softball?
Softball and baseball are pretty similar sports in terms of the rules of the game and playing style. For me they are very different, just in the size of the field, size of the ball and the attitude of it. I started playing baseball when I was seven. My father used to play, and my little brother was involved in it, so I got involved and just loved it. Baseball is probably my favorite sport, so that was something I wanted to stay with as long as I could. I got to play all the way through high school, and last spring while I was in Australia I got to play with a men's and a women's team. I never really did it as a feminist statement. It was more because I loved the sport and happened to play with a bunch of guys.
What is your thesis topic and how is it coming?
I really like my topic, and my advisors are great. I want to do a good job on it, but finding time to be in the lab has been a bit difficult. I am part of a group to prove materials for bone graphs, and the part that I am specifically doing is making multi-layered film coating for the outside. We are using a procedure called capillary electrophoreses, where you have a long tube that you can pump solutions through, and they will stick onto the sides of the walls. Basically you send a positively charged one first and then a negatively charged one to form these alternating layers. By coating the outside of the implant, you can make the body accept the implant. You can almost fool the body by putting the right coating on it. To take it one step further, you can add extra protein growth factors between the layers that will improve the healing process and basically cause the body to grow back into the bone.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
I want to do something really cool. I feel like I have been sort of lucky in that a lot things seem to come easy to me, and so I wanted to use that to actually make a difference for people. My particular interest is in the area of bio-medical engineering. I like sciences, and engineering is an application of your knowledge towards some practical means. I think that medicine is a worthwhile field because you really are trying to help somebody. Combining the two is what I would like to do. For the next two or three years I will be studying in Cambridge with the Marshall Scholarship, so I should have a Ph.D. in three years. At that point I would consider going to medical school to have that extra background training.
Explain the process of the Marshall Scholarship and accepting the award.
The Marshall Scholarship is similar to the Rhodes, in that you are funded to study for two or three years at a university in the United Kingdom. The Marshall is a little different in that you have a choice in where you go, and the Rhodes only goes to Oxford. I received a call just yesterday [Dec. 6] from the lady in San Francisco informing me that I was officially a Marshall Scholarship recipient. Cambridge is actually a better place for me because it has a better reputation for sciences and engineering. It will be a chance to meet a lot of people who are top in their field and be challenged in new ways and hopefully learn a lot from it.
Last spring you opted to study abroad in Australia. What impact did that semester have on you?
That was a great time. It was a chance to try a bunch of new things and experience a new place. It was a hard decision to go in the first place because it meant missing out on things here at Princeton and the end of the basketball season. I thought it would be a chance to go to a new part of the world, and I did not know if I would have that opportunity again. The University of Melbourne itself is a very different setting than Princeton. I think it had 35,000 students, and it is right in the middle of downtown Melbourne, which is a four-million population city. There were different restaurants to try and different cultural exhibits to see. I got the travel around the country a bit too. Australia was a place I always thought would be neat to visit, and to have the chance to live there for five months and be more than a tourist was something special.
Through all your interviews, is there something that you want to tell but never get asked?
I don't have a plan or an agenda of what I want to say, but I think the biggest thing that everything comes down to is enjoying life. You realize you choose a lot of what you do, and so since you choose it, you might as well get the most out of it.