(Note: Marco Salas will be a redshirt sophomore for the Sun Devil football team next fall. A 2018 Dobson High School graduate, he is an aspiring journalist. We will send him around to tell some stories this year and chat with some Sun Devils. He will also give us some insight on what he learned and what he appreciates about the student-athletes as he produces the story.)
Whether on the court, on the field or in the classroom, student-athletes at Arizona State University compete to be the best they can be. Many student-athletes have taken academics to the next level in Barrett, The Honors College at ASU.
Being a student-athlete in honors is a special experience. Student-athletes in Barrett compete at the highest level of Pac-12 sports while studying in the largest honors college in the nation at a university that U.S. News & World Report ranks No. 1 for innovation.
More than 50 athletes are currently enrolled in Barrett, where they get to experience the best of both worlds when it comes to academics and athletics.
Six Barrett student-athletes shared their experiences with Marco Salas, a Barrett student who is a member of the Sun Devil Football team and a journalism major at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
LIESKE CARLEER/SOCCER
Lieske Carleer, a sophomore on the women's soccer team and a second-year Barrett student, sees endless opportunities in the honors college.
"I think Barrett has a lot of faculty to help you develop and become a better person, a better student, and help you explore different things you want to learn," Carleer said.
Carleer said the honors college's seminar-style signature course for first-year students called The Human Event has helped her grow personally and learn different perspectives.
"Barrett is multicultural, and I think being in a class with all different kinds of people and having discussions about serious topics...you realize how much someone can have a different opinion on [topics] and made me realize how many differences there are."
Hailing from Winterswijk, Netherlands, Carleer had to adjust to the different learning style offered by the course. The biggest obstacle she had to overcome was writing essays for The Human Event.
"It was interesting, I never learned about American history, so along with all the readings I learned more about American history. It was also a challenge to write the essays because everything was in English, so it's kind of forced me how to learn to write properly from the start, which helped me write papers for other classes."
In only her third semester, Carleer is already developing relationships with faculty and working on projects that can potentially lead to her honors thesis.
One such project is for an upper-division kinesiology class focusing on the psychosocial aspects of physical activity.
For the project, Carleer, along with one of her soccer teammates, will set up an experiment to observe and measure the effects of physical activity on people's moods and self-esteem. They will use their soccer teammates as subjects for their experiment.
EVA VAN DEURSEN/SOCCER
Like Carleer, Eva Van Deursen, a Barrett junior on the women's soccer team who comes from Veldhoven, Netherlands, had to adjust to American learning. She too, said that The Human Event helped her make the transition.
"In the beginning I was overwhelmed with all of the reading we had to do because I wasn't really used to it, especially since it was in English and the readings were pretty hard and went pretty deep," she said.
But, Van Beursen said, discussions with fellow students and her Human Event instructor "changed my mindset."
The Barrett Writing Center is another resource that has helped Van Deursen by providing assistance with understanding the texts she read in The Human Event and writing persuasive essays based on the readings.
"In the beginning I never knew really where to start. I was all over the place, but I found out about the writing center and that has helped me the most in Barrett. Going there as many times as I wanted and meeting with the professors and really getting involved more and learning more about the text in-depth helped me write essays," Van Deursen said.
GRANT HOUSE/SWIMMING
Grant House, a junior on the swim team, has taken an unconventional route in his college career.
House took a year off from his studies to train to compete for a spot on the men's swim team for the 2020 Summer Olympics. The Olympics games were postponed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
While it was difficult returning school, the support House received from Barrett made the transition a lot easier.
"I took a year off from academics, and just coming back into the community has been very accepting. Even teachers who aren't exclusively with the Honors College are very welcoming," he said.
Although The Human Event is a challenging class and expectations for written assignments are high, House said he particularly enjoyed the discussions he had with fellow students and the texts he read, especially the Bhagavad Gita.
"For me the Bhagavad Gita was really my first dive into what I would consider eastern civilization culture on the basis on how they operate. Like we know Christianity is predominate in America, but the Bhagavad Gita opened up a new lens of understanding [to me] of why these people saw things the way they did and how people interact in a completely different hemisphere of the world," he said.
"The greatest lesson you can learn from The Human Event is opening your mind up to new ideas. My first semester of Human Event readings consisted of historic texts like the Bhagavad Gita and the Epic of Gilgamesh, but reading these texts made me realize there are different ways of seeing things other than through an American lens. I learned so much from The Human Event, that I now try to apply in other aspects of life when it comes to trying new things."
CHRISTINA WARREN/TRACK AND FIELD
Many people have their own opinion of what Barrett Honors College is. Some say it's a tight knit community of scholars or an exclusive section of ASU, but track and field sophomore Christina Warren, describes it as a layer to a multi-layered cake.
"It's like layers on a cake; there's being a student at ASU, and then there's being a student-athlete at ASU and on top of that there's being an honors student. It's more things to focus on but it's also an enhancement to my academic experience in general," she said.
Warren continues to use the cake analogy to describe the opportunities available to honors students, including clubs and activities.
"There are opportunities that come as a result of being in Barrett. For example, in the Honors Digest (the honors college's e-newsletter that goes to all Barrett students) I just found this new club called DIY Bio. Small opportunities like that just come through for being involved in the Barrett community. It's just like the icing on the ASU cake."
LINDY WEBB AND ANNA WINKELER
Navigating through your first year of college can be difficult. Having teammates that know what you're going through can help make it much easier.
More Barrett student-athletes play for the lacrosse team than for any other team at ASU, making the team a perfect place for students to find mentors who have experienced the honors college. Sophomores Lindy Webb and Anna Winkeler have received that support through their first year in Barrett.
"It's really nice because I have role models on my team who have been through it and have been like, 'you're going to make it. I did it. You're fine, like I know you're a great student,'" Webb said.
"It's really nice to hear once in a while someone reminding you 'I did it and you can too.' Everyone is struggling at some point with the honors stuff because it is stressful figuring out how you're going to do all the credits and take all the honors classes while practicing" and participating in sports, she added.
Winkeler said she appreciates having other teammates who went through the struggles she faced during her first year.
"Having a bunch of teammates in Barrett was really nice because I could go to them for essay help and say, 'Hey what does your professor say about this type of thesis, what does your professor say about this text?' It was really nice having them so close because we could keep each other accountable. So we would make sure we were all biking to practice at the same time, making sure we were getting to classes ok and we would study together," Winkeler said.
Barrett student-athletes take different routes through the honors college. Some push to complete honors credits in the early years of their university careers. Others spread honors work over four years. What is important to take from each student-athlete's story is they create their own path and transfer what they learn in honors to other aspects of their lives.
One thing is for certain, the hard work each Barrett student-athlete goes through will forever be etched in their mind as they pave their own path to the future.
Story by Marco Salas, who will be a redshirt sophomore for the Sun Devil football team next fall. He is a Barrett Honors College student studying journalism at the ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
----------------------
(NOTE: Below is a list of the Sun Devils in Barrett, The Honors College as of September of 2020)
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
Kendall Cady
Cierra Flood
Maria Kowal
Lauren Weintraub
FOOTBALL
Marco Salas
Corey Stephens
GYMNASTICS
Cassandra Barbanente
Juliette Boyer
Sarah Clark
Kaitlyn Harvey
Jordan Jaslow
Isabel Redmond
LACROSSE
Haley Gorke
Brynn Holohan
Maddy Hunter
Tess Keiser
Paige McGlothlin
Flynn Murphy
Sydney Payne
Kaitlyn Skamas
Lindsey Spies
Lindy Webb
Anna Winkeler
Lieske Carleer
Isabel Dehakiz
Olivia Nguyen
Nicole Soto
Cori Sullivan
Eva Van Deursen
MEN'S SWIM AND DIVE
Julian Hill
Grant House
Robert Pearce
Elijah Warren
WOMEN'S SWIM AND DIVE
Isabella All
Rachael Holp
WOMEN'S TENNIS
Cali Jankowski
Grace Koester
MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD
Hunter Kasprzyk
Dylan Kingston
Patrick McLean
WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD
Reina Ferra
Jenna Lee
Haley Smith
Christina Warren
TRIATHLON
Audrey Ernst
Olivia Jenks
Kira Stanley
Mckenzi Wilson
Itzahiana Baca
Tarah Schaffer
WRESTLING
Cade Belshay
Zane Coleman
Ethan Pickren
Richard Roberto
Whether on the court, on the field or in the classroom, student-athletes at Arizona State University compete to be the best they can be. Many student-athletes have taken academics to the next level in Barrett, The Honors College at ASU.
Being a student-athlete in honors is a special experience. Student-athletes in Barrett compete at the highest level of Pac-12 sports while studying in the largest honors college in the nation at a university that U.S. News & World Report ranks No. 1 for innovation.
20 years ago, through their generosity, Craig and Barbara Barrett lit the spark that transformed @ASU's honors college into @barretthonors — now the gold standard for honors colleges across the nation. https://t.co/9qOvZ7qbK4 pic.twitter.com/bGdcjrN455
— ASU Foundation (@asufoundation) October 12, 2020
More than 50 athletes are currently enrolled in Barrett, where they get to experience the best of both worlds when it comes to academics and athletics.
Six Barrett student-athletes shared their experiences with Marco Salas, a Barrett student who is a member of the Sun Devil Football team and a journalism major at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
LIESKE CARLEER/SOCCER
Lieske Carleer, a sophomore on the women's soccer team and a second-year Barrett student, sees endless opportunities in the honors college.
"I think Barrett has a lot of faculty to help you develop and become a better person, a better student, and help you explore different things you want to learn," Carleer said.
Carleer said the honors college's seminar-style signature course for first-year students called The Human Event has helped her grow personally and learn different perspectives.
"Barrett is multicultural, and I think being in a class with all different kinds of people and having discussions about serious topics...you realize how much someone can have a different opinion on [topics] and made me realize how many differences there are."
Hailing from Winterswijk, Netherlands, Carleer had to adjust to the different learning style offered by the course. The biggest obstacle she had to overcome was writing essays for The Human Event.
"It was interesting, I never learned about American history, so along with all the readings I learned more about American history. It was also a challenge to write the essays because everything was in English, so it's kind of forced me how to learn to write properly from the start, which helped me write papers for other classes."
In only her third semester, Carleer is already developing relationships with faculty and working on projects that can potentially lead to her honors thesis.
One such project is for an upper-division kinesiology class focusing on the psychosocial aspects of physical activity.
For the project, Carleer, along with one of her soccer teammates, will set up an experiment to observe and measure the effects of physical activity on people's moods and self-esteem. They will use their soccer teammates as subjects for their experiment.
EVA VAN DEURSEN/SOCCER
Like Carleer, Eva Van Deursen, a Barrett junior on the women's soccer team who comes from Veldhoven, Netherlands, had to adjust to American learning. She too, said that The Human Event helped her make the transition.
"In the beginning I was overwhelmed with all of the reading we had to do because I wasn't really used to it, especially since it was in English and the readings were pretty hard and went pretty deep," she said.
But, Van Beursen said, discussions with fellow students and her Human Event instructor "changed my mindset."
The Barrett Writing Center is another resource that has helped Van Deursen by providing assistance with understanding the texts she read in The Human Event and writing persuasive essays based on the readings.
"In the beginning I never knew really where to start. I was all over the place, but I found out about the writing center and that has helped me the most in Barrett. Going there as many times as I wanted and meeting with the professors and really getting involved more and learning more about the text in-depth helped me write essays," Van Deursen said.
Making statements on and off the pitch ???? pic.twitter.com/MXxDiIqO5o
— Sun Devil Soccer (@SunDevilSoccer) October 9, 2020
GRANT HOUSE/SWIMMING
Grant House, a junior on the swim team, has taken an unconventional route in his college career.
House took a year off from his studies to train to compete for a spot on the men's swim team for the 2020 Summer Olympics. The Olympics games were postponed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
While it was difficult returning school, the support House received from Barrett made the transition a lot easier.
"I took a year off from academics, and just coming back into the community has been very accepting. Even teachers who aren't exclusively with the Honors College are very welcoming," he said.
Although The Human Event is a challenging class and expectations for written assignments are high, House said he particularly enjoyed the discussions he had with fellow students and the texts he read, especially the Bhagavad Gita.
"For me the Bhagavad Gita was really my first dive into what I would consider eastern civilization culture on the basis on how they operate. Like we know Christianity is predominate in America, but the Bhagavad Gita opened up a new lens of understanding [to me] of why these people saw things the way they did and how people interact in a completely different hemisphere of the world," he said.
"The greatest lesson you can learn from The Human Event is opening your mind up to new ideas. My first semester of Human Event readings consisted of historic texts like the Bhagavad Gita and the Epic of Gilgamesh, but reading these texts made me realize there are different ways of seeing things other than through an American lens. I learned so much from The Human Event, that I now try to apply in other aspects of life when it comes to trying new things."
CHRISTINA WARREN/TRACK AND FIELD
Many people have their own opinion of what Barrett Honors College is. Some say it's a tight knit community of scholars or an exclusive section of ASU, but track and field sophomore Christina Warren, describes it as a layer to a multi-layered cake.
"It's like layers on a cake; there's being a student at ASU, and then there's being a student-athlete at ASU and on top of that there's being an honors student. It's more things to focus on but it's also an enhancement to my academic experience in general," she said.
Warren continues to use the cake analogy to describe the opportunities available to honors students, including clubs and activities.
"There are opportunities that come as a result of being in Barrett. For example, in the Honors Digest (the honors college's e-newsletter that goes to all Barrett students) I just found this new club called DIY Bio. Small opportunities like that just come through for being involved in the Barrett community. It's just like the icing on the ASU cake."
LINDY WEBB AND ANNA WINKELER
Navigating through your first year of college can be difficult. Having teammates that know what you're going through can help make it much easier.
More Barrett student-athletes play for the lacrosse team than for any other team at ASU, making the team a perfect place for students to find mentors who have experienced the honors college. Sophomores Lindy Webb and Anna Winkeler have received that support through their first year in Barrett.
"It's really nice because I have role models on my team who have been through it and have been like, 'you're going to make it. I did it. You're fine, like I know you're a great student,'" Webb said.
"It's really nice to hear once in a while someone reminding you 'I did it and you can too.' Everyone is struggling at some point with the honors stuff because it is stressful figuring out how you're going to do all the credits and take all the honors classes while practicing" and participating in sports, she added.
Winkeler said she appreciates having other teammates who went through the struggles she faced during her first year.
"Having a bunch of teammates in Barrett was really nice because I could go to them for essay help and say, 'Hey what does your professor say about this type of thesis, what does your professor say about this text?' It was really nice having them so close because we could keep each other accountable. So we would make sure we were all biking to practice at the same time, making sure we were getting to classes ok and we would study together," Winkeler said.
Barrett student-athletes take different routes through the honors college. Some push to complete honors credits in the early years of their university careers. Others spread honors work over four years. What is important to take from each student-athlete's story is they create their own path and transfer what they learn in honors to other aspects of their lives.
One thing is for certain, the hard work each Barrett student-athlete goes through will forever be etched in their mind as they pave their own path to the future.
Story by Marco Salas, who will be a redshirt sophomore for the Sun Devil football team next fall. He is a Barrett Honors College student studying journalism at the ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
----------------------
(NOTE: Below is a list of the Sun Devils in Barrett, The Honors College as of September of 2020)
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
Kendall Cady
Cierra Flood
Maria Kowal
Lauren Weintraub
Did you know that we have 4?? #SandDevils in @barretthonors? #SmartDevils pic.twitter.com/KR9qPNTGam
— Sun Devil Beach VB (@SunDevilBeachVB) October 1, 2020
FOOTBALL
Marco Salas
Corey Stephens
GYMNASTICS
Cassandra Barbanente
Juliette Boyer
Sarah Clark
Kaitlyn Harvey
Jordan Jaslow
Isabel Redmond
The #GymDevils are well-represented in @barretthonors! We have 7?? student-athletes in Barrett! ??#SmartDevils pic.twitter.com/GIksfECUeO
— Sun Devil Gymnastics (@SunDevilGym) October 2, 2020
LACROSSE
Haley Gorke
Brynn Holohan
Maddy Hunter
Tess Keiser
Paige McGlothlin
Flynn Murphy
Sydney Payne
Kaitlyn Skamas
Lindsey Spies
Lindy Webb
Anna Winkeler
SOCCERWhich @TheSunDevils team has the most @barretthonors student-athletes? ??
— Sun Devil Lacrosse (@SunDevilWLax) October 17, 2020
That would be @SunDevilWLax ????
1?1? members of the program are enrolled at one of the top Honors Colleges in the nation! ?? pic.twitter.com/cWtm6um46P
Lieske Carleer
Isabel Dehakiz
Olivia Nguyen
Nicole Soto
Cori Sullivan
Eva Van Deursen
Grietje Carleer-Mulder broke a speed skating world record in 1988. Thirty years later, she shares her athlete blood with her daughter, Lieske.
— Sun Devil Soccer (@SunDevilSoccer) November 4, 2020
?? https://t.co/AZE3sY09Il pic.twitter.com/kcP2gC5DrW
MEN'S SWIM AND DIVE
Julian Hill
Grant House
Robert Pearce
Elijah Warren
WOMEN'S SWIM AND DIVE
Isabella All
Rachael Holp
WOMEN'S TENNIS
Cali Jankowski
Grace Koester
We have a pair of @barretthonors students on our roster! ???? pic.twitter.com/1z41NBWfTY
— Arizona State Women's Tennis (@sundevilwtennis) October 16, 2020
MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD
Hunter Kasprzyk
Dylan Kingston
Patrick McLean
WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD
Reina Ferra
Jenna Lee
Haley Smith
Christina Warren
TRIATHLON
Audrey Ernst
Olivia Jenks
Kira Stanley
Mckenzi Wilson
WATER POLOShoutout to our Barrett 4?
— Sun Devil Triathlon (@sundeviltri) October 21, 2020
??Audrey Ernst (@ernstpink3)
??Olivia Jenks (@oajinames)
??Kira Stanley (@kstanley221)
??Kenzi Wilson (@kenzilwilson)@SunDevilTri has 4? of the 5?0?? @TheSunDevils student-athletes enrolled in @BarrettHonors ????
LEARN MORE??https://t.co/Q0s569E5sc pic.twitter.com/WTrXryer8x
Itzahiana Baca
Tarah Schaffer
WRESTLING
Cade Belshay
Zane Coleman
Ethan Pickren
Richard Roberto
Senior @CBelshay is 1? of 4? Sun Devil wrestlers in @barretthonors?? We sat down with Cade for a Q&A about his experiences in Barrett??#ForksUp | #WeAreBarrett pic.twitter.com/UGYXxqqDEw
— Sun Devil Wrestling (@ASUWrestling) October 20, 2020