Sport: Swimming
Events: 200 yd., 500 yd. and 1000 yd. freestyle; 200 yd. backstroke
Hometown: Denville, N.J.
High School: Morristown-Beard
School/Year: SFS ’02
Major: Regional Comparative Studies
Nickname: Kippie
High School Highlights: MVP – 1997 and 1998 … Team captain … All-County First Team – 200 yd. freestyle in 1998 and 400 yd. freestyle relay in 1995 … Four-year letter winner
Georgetown Highlights: Team captain junior year … Member of team that beat Big East rival Providence sophomore year … Set school records in 1650 yd. and 500 yd. freestyle freshman year
Age when you started swimming competitively: Eight
Favorite event to swim: The 200 yd. freestyle. I think a lot of people hate it for the reason I like it. It’s in between a sprint and a distance event. In distance, there’s a weird mental game to have to play, but [the 200 yd.] is over more quickly than a distance, so there’s more of a sprint aspect to it.
Hardest part of being on the swim team: It’s not actually the [physical] swimming. It’s the hour right before you know it’s going to be a tough practice, because you know you are going to be in absolute pain for two hours. But afterward you have a wonderful sense of accomplishment.
Biggest sacrifice you have had to make for swimming: Other extracurricular activities that I enjoy but don’t have time for. I have so many different interests, and I’ve had to give up a lot of those – plays in high school, piano lessons, internships, community service.
Favorite Athlete: Summer Sanders. She’s had a broad career. She used her popularity as a swimmer to become a broadcaster. I like that idea.
Favorite place: My queen-sized bed
CD in your CD player right now: U2’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind
Three magazines on your coffee table: Cosmopolitan, The Economist and Maxim (but I won’t admit it)
Song you never get sick of: Bruce Springsteen’s “Should I Fall Behind”
Favorite Georgetown Classes: Professor al Faruqi’s Islamic Religious Law and Practice and Modern Islam. She’s just amazing. She’s so enthusiastic, you can hardly breathe when you listen to her lectures. I truly believe that she’s a genius. Also, Professor Esposito’s Islam and Politics got me interested in the Middle East and Islam.
Three books in your ideal library: The Road to Mecca by Muhhamad Asad, Faith of the Fallen by Terry Goodkind and any book by David Eddings
What’s your dream car? A Volkswagen Passat
Newspaper you want delivered to your front door: The New York Times, because even though I love The Washington Post for the national section, I like the Times for the international section.
One word that sums up your experience at Georgetown:
Exceptional
Average bed time: 11 p.m.
Average wake up time: 6 or 7 a.m.
One word you would you use to describe yourself: Happy. I really like my life and everything that happens.
One word your mother would use to describe you: A gift, because when I was born, [my mother had to have] a c-section since I was turned around. There were complications with the epidural, and she had a grandmal seizure, and we both almost died. So [she would say `a gift’] becaue we both survived.
Quality you find most intriguing in someone: I like those people who have so much confidence but aren’t cocky. But there’s a fine line between that [correct level of confidence] and their being the greatest and knowing it.
Best part about New Jersey: There are a lot of people, but you know someone who knows everyone else. It’s a big sense of family. [Also], I think it’s a crime people never get off the Turnpike or Parkway to explore the greatest state in the nation.
Hobbies: I really love art. I love to paint. All of my truly good ideas come at night before I go to sleep, so I file them away. I also play the piano and the flute.
What is under your bed right now? A million pairs of shoes. Two different swimming bags, one full of random goggles and one that I take to practice. A crumpled cardboard box. Some of my roommate’s clothes. A thing with most of my CDs. Big poofy cow slippers.
