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Volleyball is a sport of
intense action, deception,
and quick motion.
It involves an object
hurtling through space--
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--propelled by force.
A reaction to an action,
one of Sir Isaac Newton's
fundamental laws of physics.
Perhaps it's no surprise,
then, that volleyball player
and astrophysics
major Megan Wilson
is passionate about the sport.
My parents signed me up for
a volleyball camp one summer.
I had no clue what I was doing.
And it just was kind of a moment
that I had with that sport
that I didn't really have
with a lot of other activities
or sports that I tried.
And I really love the
atmosphere and playing
with a bunch of
people and having
that really big connection
with the other girls, which
is really cool.
Wilson has also made a quantum
leap in her contribution
to the team in her
time here so far.
She has made huge gains in terms
of her confidence, her ability
to run the offense
that we're wanting
to run, being a leader on
the court with her teammates,
setting the right example,
doing the right thing.
She's made huge strides, as
big as anybody on the team.
It's really, really
special to play
with a bunch of
girls who are also
really passionate about
volleyball and school.
In her younger years, Wilson
discovered her other passion,
astronomy.
I've kind of been really
interested in astronomy
for as long as I can remember.
My grandma used to take me down
to the National Air and Space
Museum in DC.
And we'd go to the
planetarium shows
and look through the telescopes.
And it was just kind of I've
always been interested in it.
Astrophysics requires
a great deal of time
and is not a major commonly
seen within the student athlete
community.
I didn't even know that we
offered the major until she
showed interest in it.
Because I've been at some other
very highly academic schools,
and there's been some
architecture, some engineering.
But astrophysics is not one
that comes across your plate
very often.
Now in her second
year, Wilson has
grown accustomed to the
unforgiving schedule and rigors
of a highly challenging major
mixed with a varsity sport.
Just recalling how
difficult it was just
trying to organize student life
along with academical rigor.
Everything that physics and
the STEM fields have that's
just so demanding.
For instance, the lab space
here is a four hour lab.
That's only including
the work that Meg has
to do here in this classroom.
That's not even accounting
for the number of hours
outside where she'll
be doing derivations
for harmonic motion,
writing up full lab reports
for all the activities that she
actually does here in the lab,
as well.
And then on top of
that, keeping in mind
all of the various
practices, conference
travel, everything else
that she has to manage.
Yeah.
No free time at all.
But if it is free
time, I would rather
spend it doing extra reps
or doing research or working
with professors or whoever.
It's definitely going to be
volleyball or astrophysics.
Not because I have to,
but because I like to.
And it's because it's something
that I really, really do enjoy.
And whether it's with
her head in the stars
or her feet on
the ground, Wilson
has a firm grasp on not only
her academic and athletic
experience, but
something greater.
It puts a lot of
things in perspective.
And I think that astronomy is
a very, very humbling field.
And it's really cool to
see where did we come from.
Why is all of this
the way it is?
And it's just kind of a field
for really curious people,
because they want to understand
the world around them.
And that's really what we're
trying to do at the base of it.
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