#D3Week Feature: Rachel Kling, Swimming
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. These student-athletes' accomplishments reach well beyond the field, court or pool that they compete in.
Our week-long celebration continues with a four-year member of the women's swimming team, Rachel Kling. Rachel is finishing up her health sciences degree at Chapman and will jump right into postgraduate work at Chapman for Physical Therapy. She has helped the women's team rise from sixth place at the SCIAC Championships her freshman year to third place this year while maintaining a GPA over 3.9.
You are pursuing a career in Physical Therapy. How did your passion for that field come about?
When I was a kid, my family and I were in a serious car accident where my dad was seriously injured. Since I was homeschooled at the time, I went with him to most of his physical therapy appointments and was able to see the transformation from a man who couldn't walk to one who now competes in 100 mile bike rides. From then on, I knew I wanted to be the kind of a person that could have that sort of an impact in another's life. Then, when I took an anatomy/physiology class in high school, I absolutely fell in love with the human body so physical therapy just seemed like a perfect fit for me.
You are staying at Chapman to continue your education toward Physical Therapy. Why Chapman? Did you get into any others?
Coming into Chapman, I wanted to do the bridge program from the Health Science major into their physical therapy school just because of how well it was ranked. However, as I took more and more classes in the HSK department, I realized just how unique Chapman's approach to education is. I felt like the faculty, especially Dr. Frisch and Dr. Sternlicht, worked to get to know me not only as a student, but also a person. While I considered other PT schools like USC, I just couldn't imagine going somewhere where I would just be another cog in the machine so I decided to do early decision into Chapman.
What are some things you've done to prepare for your career goal while in college? Internships? Jobs? Volunteer hours?
Last spring I interned at a specialized physical therapy clinic in Irvine called Advanced Soft Tissue Release and this semester I'm interning at SCAR Physical Therapy. I love interning at SCAR because they let me have hands on experience with the patients and I'm learning about not just about various modalities of PT, but how to connect with different patients as well. I've also been the SI for Human Physiology Part A for four semesters now and that has helped me to gain a really solid foundation and understanding of those body systems.
What brought you to swimming in college? What is your best memory from your years in the pool here?
Swimming was such a huge part of my life in high school and with everything else changing around me, I wasn't ready to let it go. I also didn't know anyone coming into Chapman, so the team aspect was really comforting as well. My best memory has to be when they announced at SCIAC this year that we got third place overall, and we all went so crazy cheering that you could barely hear them announce the second place team. Considering we got sixth my freshman year, it was so exciting to see just how far the team has come in such a short time.
What does it mean to you to be a Division III student-athlete? How has your swimming career helped prepare you for your next step?
For me, being a DIII student athlete means being able to have the best of both worlds. Not only do I get the chance to compete at a high level, but everyone in the pool is there for the love of the sport, not because they're on some sort of a scholarship, which creates a unique environment. Since it is not as big of a time commitment as D1, it also enables me to succeed academically and participate in other organizations. Swimming has helped to prepare me for the rest of my life in that it has taught me a lot about being able to prioritize my long term goals over short term comfort, whether that be just getting up at 5:20 am for practice or not backing off in the middle of a workout just because my body hurts.
Finally, your GPA is nearly perfect. Swimming requires a lot of hours in the pool. What's your secret?
No real secret, it just really comes down to time management, planning ahead, and asking for help when needed. Instead of just watching Netflix, I used practice and hot tub time as my built in study break. I found that a lot of the time I would come back to my studies fresher and better able to understand the material after a good workout. Also, at the beginning of the semester, I look through all my syllabi and write down all the due dates and midterms. That way, I can see what weeks are going to be busy and what weeks I can just work to get ahead in. In some of my more challenging classes, I took full advantage of my professor's office hours in addition some of the services offered by the Tutoring, Learning & Testing Center, rather than spending hours struggling with the material on my own or just giving up.