Around Campus

Bright future ahead for host of Texas rowers

Back in mid-May, the University of Texas women's rowing team was in pursuit of a third straight appearance at the NCAA National Championships in Sacramento, California. Under the direction of head coach Carie Graves, former USA Olympic gold medalist, the Longhorn rower program is squarely on the national map in its eighth year of varsity competition.

While the team, collectively, prepared to tackle the step of qualifying for the championships, a host of senior rowing student-athletes were prepared to take noteworthy next steps in their academic and professional careers. Here is a sampling of the academic successes of these Longhorn rowers:

Junior Vanessa Canac (Houston, Texas) earned the UT Marvin Wright Engineering Athlete Award boasting a 3.6 GPA which marks the highest among student-athlete engineering majors; senior Karen Glazebrook (St. Catharines, Ontario) recently was accepted to graduate school at the University of Saskatchewan where she will continue her studies in health behavior; senior Danielle Kowalski (Riverview, Montana) accepted a five-month internship position at the Late Show with David Letterman; senior Pam Painter (LaPorte, Texas) received the Carol May and James C. Thompson Scholarship in physics; and junior Katey Porter (Houston, Texas) earned the 2005 Vance L. Stickell Memorial Internship as one of the top 10 advertising students in the nation.

"In addition to the daily grind of rowing these young women find the time to be outstanding student-athletes," said Graves. "It's wonderful to have so many rowers on the team earn such outstanding recognition, including jobs and internships in their fields of academic expertise. When rowers receive these awards - particularly this year when there are a number of them - it's almost a jolt because it impresses me so much. These are outstanding opportunities for them and I am extremely happy for these young women."

Through great diligence and hard work, junior coxswain Katey Porter has been placed at the Los Angeles Times and will begin her 10-month internship on June 4th. Previously, Porter was selected as the most outstanding member of The University of Texas' student chapter of the American Advertising Federation.

"Katey is a bright, young, energetic and original thinker," said John Murphy, Professor in Advertising and Distinguished Teacher Professor at The University of Texas. "The [LA] Times internship is really the originator of this program, so being selected to do her internship there is really a double honor. The award is based on the student's GPA, their extracurricular activities, an essay and letters of recommendation, so it's quite a complete examination of the students on paper and Katey should be proud of herself."

A psychology and kinesiology double major who boasts an overall GPA of 3.91, Karen Glazebrook is a two-time All-South Region scholar-athlete and two-time rowing team academic MVP. She will continue her kinesiology studies and will participate in a health behavior program which focuses on research in exercise, disease prevention and health promotion at the University of Saskatchewan.

Danielle Kowalski's five-month internship at the Late Show With David Letterman involves cultivating talent and assistance in coordination of guest appearances in New York City beginning in December.

"When you see the kind of prowess that these young women have displayed by dedicating themselves to their majors as well as their athletics, it's just a great story," Texas Director of Women's Athletics Chris Plonsky said. "All of these employers and educators are going to find out very quickly that they are getting the most driven, goal-oriented, prepared people that they could possibly get."

Katey Porter

Pamela Painter

Vanessa Canac

Karen Glazebrook

Danielle Kowalski