The Write Stuff: Jessica Lpez
Heather Martin

Its true what they say about good things coming in small packages. This is certainly the case with Jessica Lpez, a student-athlete and psychology major at DU. Though she stands at an even five feet tall and swims in a size small Pioneers sweatshirt, this gutsy junior looms large in Pioneer athletics and packs a lions share of pluck and determination.

Lpez began as a first-year student at DU three years ago after moving here from her home in Caracas, Venezuela. In Caracas, Lpez was a member of the Venezuelan National Gymnastics Team, where she was required to practice a grueling eight hours a day. This training schedule made higher education impossible and left little time for much of anything else. Lpez was drawn to DU because of its fine academic reputation and tenth-ranked gymnastics team. She had aspirations of acquiring a college education while also making her mark in the arenas of NCAA and international gymnastics.

Her first year at DU was a challenging one. She spoke very little English and had difficulty connecting with classmates, teammates, and professors. She missed her friends and family back home and felt overwhelmed by the workload at DU. Because she had to translate everything from English to Spanish and then back again, even the shortest assignments took hours to complete. She also struggled with cultural differences in teacher expectations for her writing. For the first time, she was asked to write argumentative essays that asserted her own ideas and perspectives, not just the arguments of others. But Lpez tells me that those struggles have faded into the distant past. Since her enrollment at DU, she has blossomedbecoming fluent in English, finding her niche in the psychology department with hopes of continuing on in graduate school, and breaking record after record as a Pioneer gymnast.

When I asked about her writing process, Lpez says that she now brainstorms, plans, and drafts in English. In fact, she has actually begun to think in English, no small feat for someone who arrived knowing only a handful of English words a few short years ago. Like many students, Lpez often grapples with the organization and structure of her papers, but shes found it useful to meet with her professors and tutors to work through these issues.

As she hoped, Lpez has scored high marks with the DU gymnastics team. She became DUs first three-time All-American gymnast at the 2007 National Championships this past April. She attended the 2007 Pan American Games and Award Championships, and has qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. Yet, even with school, practices, and social obligations, she still finds time for community action, volunteering on weekends with her teammates for local food drives and community organizations like the Girl Scouts. One of the most important things Ive learned at DU, she says, is how to work and be part of a team. These words come from a serious student and competitor who is managing to do it all with a warm smile and truckload of humility, a student who most certainly has the right stuff.

Home