Nov. 3, 2004
by Renee Thessing, UI Sports Information
As a college student, school is extremely overwhelming and stressful. Unlike most students, athletes have the added expectation of performing well in sports and school. Kimberly Coninx (K.C.), Rachel Frank, and Andrea Ridgeway perform this balancing act every day throughout the year. Not only do they have to worry about classes, homework, and internships, but they also have the added stress of a sports season: practice and games. Their majors are some of the most difficult offered at the University of Illinois. K.C. is in Aerospace Engineer. Rachel is working on a double major of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Spanish, while Andrea is studying to be a chemical engineer.
All of the women came into the U of I knowing that they wanted to study the sciences; they're examples of the capability of modern day women:
"I knew I wanted to go into the sciences," said Ridgeway. "Chemical engineering combines both chemistry and engineering, two things I am interested in."
"I love biology, but I want to be a doctor, too, so it fits. I like Spanish too," said Frank, "and I took so much in high school that I figured I might as well. I think by the time I'm in the professional world, half our country, at least, will somewhat be speaking Spanish. It is so important to gain a patient's trust, and it is so much easier for them to be calm when you can speak in their language."
Luckily with this decision, none of them have had the added stress of switching her major. However, KC, unlike Frank and Ridgeway, decided to walk on the soccer team after her freshman year. Even with the knowledge that her major is one of the most difficult, requiring 142 hours to graduate, she decided to take on the extra stress for the love of playing soccer.
"Playing soccer that first spring was definitely a wake-up call," said K.C. "I think I dropped down a few hours. I was taking 17 hours and I dropped down to 14 hours. Then my first fall season, I dropped down to 12 hours. I took a much lighter load for school. I will have to take an extra semester to graduate, but I will have an extra semester to play, too."
Majoring in fields often associated with men, Ridgeway and Frank have been surprised at the number of women in their classes. Women's increasing interest in the medical field provides an explanation for the increase in majors associated with biology and chemistry. K.C., unlike the other two, attends male-dominated classes. However, all three still see the remnants of the male dominated profession.
"On average there are probably more males than females in my classes, but there are about 40% girls as well. I think more girls have entered chemical engineering because more are interested in chemistry," Ridgeway explained.
"One of my classes has 40-50 people in it and there are only two girls including me," said K.C. "It has been like that since my freshman year. The number of girls has definitely dwindled since then, but I've gotten used to it. I don't even realize it anymore."
Said Frank: "My classes are about 50-50 gender ratio. In today's society more women are entering the medical profession. Last year for University of Illinois School of Medicine there were 52 percent females, which is a trend that never happens. Engineering is still so much guys. I walk into Loomis, which is the physics lab, and there is only one female bathroom that I know of. The rest are for guys. I don't think they even made it for girls until 20 years ago, but then again, I could be completely wrong."
Frank, K.C., and Ridgeway shift from a once-dominated male field of study to an all female field of soccer. With their days consumed by classes and practice, every spare minute is used for studying. However, on those road trips, or short vacations, the girls often find it difficult to study.
"I try to do homework all throughout the day," said Ridgeway." I do it between classes, before practice, and then at home at night. I try to look at my notes between every period. I probably do four hours of homework a night, on average. On the road I try to do some homework, but I don't do any hard core studying. I can get easily distracted because girls are always talking and watching movies, so it makes it a little more difficult."
"The time I spend on homework really depends on the week," Frank noted. "There are nights when I get home from practice, get showered, and eat by 6 or 7 o'clock. Then I'll probably do homework from 8 p.m. until two in the morning. But then there are some nights when I won't do anything. I'll be watching TV or playing poker until 2 a.m. I always bring my homework on the road, but I never do it. So Sunday night when we get back it's a really late night. I like to sleep on the bus or talk to people or just watch movies. I hate doing work, but I bring it. It just happens to sit in my backpack."
"Most of my classes have a lot of outside work. I have a break during the day so I usually take three hours during the middle of the day to do homework. The last two weeks I've only gotten five hours of sleep a night. Some weeks I spend eight hours a day every day doing homework. It all depends on the week, but it can pretty bad," said K.C.
Even though all the women spend a great deal of time on their fields of study, none of them knows exactly where her major will lead her. In the back of all their minds, like every student, there is another area of interest or a peculiar dream.
"I don't really have a clue about what I want to do," Ridgeway said. "I'll probably go into the medical aspect of the field. After graduation, I think I'll move back out East and try to get some type of job out there. However my dream job would be a singer, even though I can't sing."
"I'm definitely set on becoming a doctor," said Frank. "I think it would be awesome to eventually come back and work at a university. I still want to have my own kind of practice, but I love being part of Illinois soccer. If I could be a part of a team like this in the future and still practice medicine, that would be the best of both worlds. However my dream job would be a professional poker player. I love no-limit Texas Hold'em."
"I have no idea what I'm going to do with my degree," K.C. lamented. "I don't know if I even want to pursue a career in the aerospace industry. I definitely know that I don't want to do research, because I did it over the summer and there's too much data analysis. I didn't like it at all. You just sat in front of a computer all day. Maybe that's what engineering is about, but I don't want to do that. It would drive me crazy.
"After graduation, I think I want to go to grad school in Chicago for some sort of engineering. However, in the back of my mind I've always wanted to do something with sports. Part of me just wants to go back to high school and be a coach. I wouldn't want to teach high school, but I would love to coach at a high school. In 10 years, I only know that I want to be living in Chicago."
Ridgeway, Frank and KC all dedicate themselves to their classes but soccer remains their number one love. No matter what career they finally choose, soccer has impacted and will continue to impact their entire lives.
