Student Spotlight: Patty Kelly

Practice, class, study, sleep repeat...for the student athletes at UC this a normal routine.

Patty Kelly is a junior E-Media student from Baltimore Maryland; she is also a member of Cincinnati’s varsity Women’s Lacrosse team.

Originally recruited to play at the University of Maryland, Patty was soon sidelined with an injury. When UC started their varsity lacrosse program she decided to transfer and be a part of a new team and create traditions and a new program.

“When I started researching UC's E-Media program, I was really excited to see that the curriculum included an wide variety of topics and study. The program is not one-dimensional. It allows students to shape their own area of specialty and offers exceptional training in whatever he or she chooses.”

On top of taking a full course load, Patty has lacrosse practice 3-5 hours a day, six days a week.  With their travel schedule during the season, it is very rare for her be home for more than a week.  She says the E-Media program is supportive of student athletes, and teachers are understanding of her game schedules.

“Balancing my athletic and E-Media schedule is definitely a lot of work, but I think I perform better both in the classroom and on the field when I am following a strict schedule. As an athlete we have what you call a practice block, which is a 4 hour block for our practice that we have to work around while scheduling classes”

With this strict schedule, Patty says it has helped her time management skills.  It keeps her focused and forces her to get all her work done on time.

“My schedule it usually times down the minute, so it is not to odd to see me sprinting across campus to get to class on time.”

As students progress further in E-Media, they take more production-based classes, which often require lab hours outside of class. For Patty, it is an extra challenge to fit in her lab hours with her busy schedule.

“I have more and more trouble finding classes that fit around my practice schedule. I am forced to miss a good chuck of practice a couple of days a week which forces me to make up the workouts at in wee hours of the morning.”

So what advice does Patty have for future E-Media student who are interested in playing a varsity sport?

“Be to be ready for strenuous and strict long days of athletic and academics.  There is no sleeping in, no skipping classes and no off-days. It is very important to have good relationships with your professors so that accommodations can be made for team trips. And finally, you can most definitely still have down time and social time-- as long as you make sure you take care of all of your academic and athletic responsibilities first.

Patty’s current focus is post-production but is keeping an open mind to other video production areas. She plans to graduate in June 2010.  Although she doesn’t have any post-graduation plans yet, she intends to move back to Baltimore.

 Written by Emily Polak, June 2009