PHOTO by Imann Gad
Angel Robinson looks over the answers to some GRE prep questions.
By Imann Gad
ATHENS, Ga—Thousands of students desert the University of Georgia campus when summer hits, but many student athletes stay and take time to invest in their futures.
Angel Robinson, a fourth year education major and Lady Bulldog from Marietta, Ga., has a productive summer ahead of her. Along with workouts and rehabilitation for a knee injury, she is studying for the GRE and taking summer classes.
“After my morning workouts, I study, take a break, and later in the evening I study again.”
Robinson is also interning with the Marietta City School system. She networks and looks for business sponsors to mentor young males.
Although Robinson is spending her summer doing work she said she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“The summer is a time for me to get ahead in my academics and it prepares me for basketball season.”
Robinson may not enjoy the entire summer break, but she does get some time.
“Instead of getting a month off,” she says smiling. “I get a few days to relax.”
Vince Vance, a housing and consumer economics major and fourth year right tackle from San Jose, Calif., also has a busy summer schedule.
“I attend my morning workouts, class, then work camp, Vance said, “Next thing I know its 7 p.m.”
Vance said he would much rather spend his summer on a lake fishing with his friends back home, but he understands that sacrifices must be made for his future.”
“In the long-run I know I am doing what is best for me.”
Second year basketball player, Travis Leslie is from Decatur, Ga. Lester spent his summer before college getting a head start on his academics. He continues by spending the upcoming summer taking more classes.
“I took summer classes here before I actually got here in fall,” Leslie said. “I’m actually glad I did because it feels good to not have a lot on your plate during the season.”
Junior basketball guard from Trenton, Ga., Ashley Houts, is spending part of her summer working out in Athens and interning in the Athletic department.
Houts, a Recreation and Leisure Studies major, enjoys her summers in Athens because they helped her achieve a very important goal.
“Spending my summer in Athens prepares me physically for the season and gain spots on other teams.”
Houts was selected as a finalist for the U.S. National Team that will compete in this summer’s World University Games. If chosen to be one of the 12 players, she will participate in the games, hosted in Belgrade, Serbia.
Almost 500 students make-up 16 of the athletic teams. The majority of them spend their summers taking classes and preparing for the next academic year. Although they spend that time to train for their individual sports, many prefer working in areas that will help further their future careers.
Hard work does pay off.
Edited by Courtney M. Holbrook
Imann and Courtney,
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting story with good interviews. I'm surprised you were able to get ahold of these student-athletes in such a short time; they're often hard to get in touch with.
The story could use a nut graph up high summarizing why student-athletes in particular benefit from summer school. A couple alluded to getting the academics out of the way to lighten the load during their seasons, but this is a central point of your story and you should develop it more.
It would be nice to have as a source a counselor or academic adviser who works with these athletes, to provide perspective on their unique needs and concerns. And in the end of the story I'd rather see a good quote to remember; the bromide "hard work does pay off" is a conclusion you can let readers draw for themselves.
There some style and punctuation problems. Below are just a couple that occur in quotes. If you attribute a quote in the middle, you need to determine if the second half of the quote continues a sentence or starts a new one. If the sentence continues afterward, you use a comma after the attribution and lowercase the beginning of the second part of the quote. If it's a new sentence, you use a period after the attribution and start the next part with a capital letter. You have it reversed in the examples below, and you also left out a closed quote:
“Instead of getting a month off,” she says smiling. “I get a few days to relax.”
“I attend my morning workouts, class, then work camp, Vance said, “Next thing I know its 7 p.m.”
Study up on quotation marks in the punctuation guide in AP. Good work on the story.