Student named to Women’s Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete Team
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Civil engineering junior and student athlete Sophie Stefanac has been named to the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Women’s Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete Team. She is one of six UIC women to make the team.
The criteria for the MVC Scholar-Athlete Team voting parallels the College Sports Communicators standards for academic all-America nominations. To be nominated, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore with a 3.5 cumulative GPA or better. They must compete in at least four competitions or finish in the top eight individually at the conference championship or be a member of a top-three relay team at the event.
In addition to earning a 3.84 GPA, Stefanac raced in the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke at this year’s conference competition to qualify for the scholar-athlete team. She also holds the second-fastest time in the 100-yard backstroke among UIC female swimmers.
“I take a lot of pride in representing UIC athletically and academically,” Stefanac said. “My experience as a student-athlete at UIC has been challenging, but incredibly rewarding. In the pool, I have amazing coaches and teammates to push me to be the best every day. In the classroom, I have received a lot of support and help from my professors and classmates. My summer internship was recommended to me by a CME professor. That experience – along with the connections I made – allowed me to secure an internship for this upcoming summer.”
In engineering, she appreciates the approachable size of the department and its classes. “The CME department is big enough to allow different clubs to engage with the student body, but it isn’t too big that I don’t know any of my peers,” she said.
Stefanac is also a member of the engineering honor society Tau Beta Pi, the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, and the Women in Engineering Program.
“My engagement in these clubs has definitely made a positive impact on my time at UIC and has allowed me to become closer with my peers in athletics and academics. Additionally, the CME department wants to see its students succeed. Between scholarships and career fairs, I have felt supported and uplifted by the faculty,” she said.
With a strong faculty that brings years of professional engineering experience to the classroom, CME is preparing her for the working world.
“When interviewing for internships, many companies praised UIC and the CME department. Studying civil engineering at UIC has allowed me to make a lot of great connections in Chicago, too,” Stefanac said.
After graduation, she plans on taking the professional engineer exam and pursue a career as a structural engineer.