#D3week featured student-athlete: Tessa Oliaro, women's lacrosse
Every year, NCAA Division III institutions across the country participate in Division III Week. To celebrate this week, we will bring you a new profile every day that gives a glimpse into the life of Chapman's student-athletes.
Feature #1: Brad Steiner, Baseball
Feature #2: Madeline Saunders, Tennis
Feature #3: Marco Saglimbeni, Soccer
Last year, senior Tessa Oliaro spent her morning speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony for Chapman's new Center for Science & Technology alongside then-President Jim Doti and then helped the women's lacrosse team to a SCIAC Quarterfinal win just a few hours later. In addition to being a starting attacker, she has taken on several internships and won grants for her research. She'll move to UC Berkeley next fall to begin working on her master's.
How were you selected and what was it like to talk at the groundbreaking of the new building for the Schmid College of Science & Technology?
In order to learn about people from all walks of life, I applied to the Ambassador Program at Chapman and was promoted to Student Director of the program. The Ambassador Program oversees high profile events on campus that benefit the educational institution. I was humbled to be selected as the student representative for the new Science and Technology groundbreaking ceremony, standing alongside the President, Chancellor, and Dean of the Science College. With a personal connection to some of the elites at Chapman, I recognized their dedication to education both as a personal exploration and through teaching students more about the significance of learning. I became even more inspired and excited to further my own research and academic endeavors through higher education in order to serve and guide others in the future. Being selected by the Ambassador Program was a very unique honor, and I was extremely proud to represent the sciences as well as athletics.
What does being able to play college lacrosse mean to you?
Being a part of the women's lacrosse team has given me a place to belong. When I was a freshman, I did not know anyone and lacrosse was a great way to meet my best friends. Going forward, athletics has given me amazing opportunities to pursue being a student athlete, accomplishing great feats both on and off the field. I learned valuable lessons of time management, sacrifice for the betterment of a team, and striving towards a common goal. Likewise, athletics has taught me to stay focused, and when life becomes tumultuous, lacrosse showed me to leave it on the sideline and to simply play. Giving me a foundation for moving forward I will be attending the University of California, Berkeley for the top Master's of Public Health in Environmental Health.
What are some other things you've been able to pursue off the field – research, internships, etc?
One distinctive compilation of my scholarly work conducted at Chapman is my undergraduate research. The research I have conducted displays the inhalation pathway of arsenic particulate matter, and the pathway by which these particles travel through the body and where the arsenic metalloid causes the most distress to the body. This research is important because the relationships between the geochemical/physical properties of airborne dust particles and the potential of harmful effects has not yet been clearly established. Furthermore, the findings generated by this experiment will determine if other environmentally-contaminated regions pose a hazard to residents and visitors.
This research has generated multiple grants, including, a grant through OURCA (Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity), Schmid College of Science & Technology, and the Student Government Association. Additionally, this research has been conducted through National labs including the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. Likewise, the research will be presented at the American Chemical Society National Meeting in San Francisco. Currently, I am submitting an abstract for the 2017 Geochemical Society & European Association of Geochemistry Goldschmidt Conference in Paris, France. At Chapman, this research will be presented at Chapman Student Research Day, Chapman's Honor's conference, and the Phi Beta Kappa Research Fair. In conclusion of this research, a direct correlation to human exposure and impact of heavy metalloid inhalation toxicity will be analyzed and presented for a published paper.
Additionally, I have held many internships including working at Boys and Girls Club, Water Education Foundation, and International Rescue Committee. For one of my internships, I acted as the health intern for an international nonprofit that resettles refugees through health care. This involvement opened my eyes to the tragedies that new immigrating families encounter in their home countries, and the barriers and obstacles that these families have to overcome in a new country. The clients at the International Rescue Committee were barred from many of the medical services that should have been appropriated to them with the acquisition of a green card. Through this internship, I also learned how health hazards could impact different socioeconomic groups that do not have access to adequate living conditions and medical care.