Straight A-Team: Jensen Henry
6/20/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
June 20, 2008
This is the 12th in a series of 16 features about Miami University's brightest student-athletes. Their exceptional academic performance during the recently completed spring semester earned them a spot on the roster of the RedHawks' exclusive Straight A Team. In addition to their rigorous schedules on the athletic fields, each of these individuals earned a perfect 4.0 grade-point average this past semester. Overall, during the 2007-08 academic year, Miami's 500-plus student-athletes earned an impressive cumulative 3.0 GPA in the classroom.
"Divide and Conquer": The term is synonymous with military strategies to computer algorithms, but for freshman swimmer Jensen Henry it has been a way to tackle the challenges of being a collegiate athlete.
"Both athletics and academics force you to evaluate your strengths and utilize them to the best of your ability in order to break down obstacles and overcome them," she stated in a recent interview.
Her statements were echoed by head swimming coach Dave Jennings, as he credited Henry with having "a tremendous intellectual curiosity and a passion for academics and learning... a good sense of organization, clear cut goals, and an outstanding baseline attitude for tackling tough challenges."
The second of Miami's women's swimming and diving team members to make the Straight-A Team, Henry is majoring in zoology with a pre-med concentration. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, her most difficult classes this past semester were the ones required for her major: chemistry and zoology.
What keeps her motivated through such a tough major you may ask?
"I'm lucky to be so interested in the subjects which have the most difficulty-that is partly what keeps me motivated. I guess I never grew out of the constant `why' and `how' question phase of childhood, which is why science has always been a favorite for me. The competition from my peers is also a motivator."
This summer Henry will be a very busy RedHawk. When she is not swimming and competing for a local club team, teaching swim lessons, or involved in an inner-city swim program, the Omaha, Nebraska native will be working on a congressional campaign, tutoring students in college chemistry, and studying for the French CLEP (College-Level Examination Program) exam. Additionally, her family has a trip planned to the continent of Africa in late July.
We wish her the best of luck in making a return trip to the Straight-A Team roster next fall. Henry plans to tackle her first neuroscience class, another challenge she is looking forward to.
Straight "A" Team Bio
Name: Jensen Henry
Hometown/High School: Omaha, Nebraska/Westside
Major: Zoology/Pre-Med
Spring Semester GPA: 4.0