The MIAA Swimming & Diving Championships Begin Wednesday, Click for More Information
Sarah Kilbride packed more activities into the first half of her sophomore year than many college students do in a four-year career.
One of the more versatile swimmers on the Albion College women's squad, Kilbride has twice had her season interrupted to allow time for her to complete academic and real-world opportunities.
A biology major who is considering a career in dermatology or sports medicine, Kilbride missed competing in the Carthage Winter Classic, a meet the Britons use as a barometer at the middle of the season and to replicate the program of events for the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championships in February, to study for a battery of fall semester final examinations, including ones in organic chemistry and genetics courses.
And she left the Britons winter break training trip to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and missed dual meets against Saginaw Valley State University and Calvin College to join a group of Albion students belonging to the Global Medical Brigades group on an eight-day mission trip to Nicaragua.
Despite the interruption in December, Kilbride may have been one of the Britons most valuable performers during her abbreviated time in Florida, achieving her season best times. And she has been eager to return to training since returning from Nicaragua.
"She came out on fire all week (in Florida)," Albion Head Coach Jake Taber said. "She set the tone for how she was capable of training at a different level.
"And she has a great attitude," he added. "She sent text messages wanting to know when she could get back in the water."
Achieving the times she clocked in Florida is remarkable considering the break in December and how much time swimmers spend in training.
"I have had to miss out on a lot from having to prioritize my school work, and the trip to Nicaragua was an experience for my future, and it has felt like swimming has been interrupted," Kilbride said. "I think it was the right decision for me because it paid off in the end with my grades and the experience in Nicaragua will pay off in the end.
"Since I missed the midseason meet I have no idea about how I'm going to swim in the MIAA Championship," she added. "The week after the Carthage meet, I wondered if I would have set a season best time or if I would have been on this relay or that relay, but I needed to be here studying here. It was not the ideal situation before final examinations."
While admitting her stroke doesn't feel as smooth as it will with another week of training, Kilbride is anxious to compete against league rivals in February. She finished sixth in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly events and achieved a school record with the 400 medley relay team despite fighting a back that was sore from an aquatic accident the summer before her first year at Albion.
Reflecting on a 'Humbling Experience'
Albion takes pride in creating an environment where students are encouraged to dive into activities to prepare them for the real world, and Kilbride was overwhelmed by the support she received from Taber and her teammates for the mission trip.
"I'm not the first person on the swim team to go on a mission trip with Global Medical Brigades so that helped, but coach was more understanding than others might have been," Kilbride said. "He was helpful and supportive throughout the whole experience.
"My teammates were very supportive," she added. "They sent me a bunch of texts the night before I left saying how they were proud of me and how much they were going to miss me."
On the first three days of the trip, the Kilbride and fellow Albion students helped set up medical clinics. The valuable experience the students receive comes from working with directly with the Nicaraguan patients and shadowing doctors and pharmacists.
The second part of the trip had the group digging a trench to give residents in a town access to fresh water and mixing concrete to build latrines. Seeing how little people had gave Kilbride, a native of West Bloomfield, a new sense of perspective.
"One of the stations the volunteers worked at the medical clinic was education – teaching kids to brush their teeth and then playing with them while their parents were seen by the doctors,' Kilbride shared. "The children were so nice, funny, and grateful. They were so loving when they had nothing. They loved living in the moment and were grateful for the help, even though we were just giving them a toothbrush."
Upcoming Research
Kilbride will continue creating opportunities geared toward distinguishing herself from other medical school applicants this spring, hoping her work in the advanced genetics lab will launch her into a summer research project sponsored by the college's Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. That's on top of a rigorous set of courses including more organic chemistry and conservation biology.
"I can connect genetics to organic chemistry and understand why things are the way they are," Kilbride said. "Hopefully I'll be doing a research project with model organisms like fruit flies, testing how drugs can combat different diseases."
While keeping her planner handy to track assignments and events is essential, Kilbride is certain the sacrifice she's making to be a student-athlete at Albion is worth it.
"Albion has given me so many more opportunities than I could have imagined," she said, noting she traveled to France as part of her First-Year Experience class
