Like most college students, student-athletes have had to endure the havoc caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Harvard's Felicia Pasadyn managed her way through all the obstacles and has excelled in the classroom and the pool, where she is a member of the Crimson women's swimming and diving team.
During the Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships earlier this month, Pasadyn's 4.0 grade-point average in integrated biology led to her being named the recipient of the Elite 90 Award at the meet in Atlanta. The award is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 90 championships.
Harvard's Felicia Pasadyn
Pasadyn also shone in the competition, swimming a school-record 4:08.25 in the 400-yard individual medley qualifying heat. She swam the consolation final in 4:08:29, good for 15th place overall. She also swam a season-best 1:57.36 in the preliminary heat of the 200-yard individual medley and placed 28th out of 52 swimmers in the preliminaries of the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:54.06, her second-fastest time of the year.
Pasadyn, who is graduating in three years at Harvard, didn't have the opportunity to swim in the NCAA championships her freshman year because the meet was canceled amid the pandemic. In the 2020-21 academic year, she was unable to swim because the Ivy League didn't hold any athletics competitions.
Just being able to compete at the NCAA national meet was worth the journey, and leaving with the top academic recognition added to the experience.
"I had heard of the award before, but I didn't know what it entailed," Pasadyn said. "It is really an honor. I was confused at first, because when I first went up to the podium, and they told me seniors were being interviewed for some sort of spotlight. I was shocked when I found out what it was really for. I saw my parents crying in the stands. It caused an overwhelming wave of emotions."
After her graduation in May from Harvard, Pasadyn plans to head to graduate school at Ohio State, where she will begin a master's program in bioethics and swim for the Buckeyes. She grew up in Hinckley, Ohio, a couple of hours from Columbus.
The following year, her plans are to pick a medical school.
"I'm thinking of going into internal medicine," Pasadyn said. "Something like neurology would be interesting. I'm keeping my options open. I think surgery would be cool, as well. Anything in medicine really excites me at this point."
