Scholar-Athlete: Augusto Alonso

By Jordan Moore on October 6, 2011 1:13 PM | No Comments

This week's scholar-athlete is redshirt junior linebacker Augusto Alonso, who majors in biomedical engineering.
Click here for the complete conversation!

What has been your inspiration and motivation?

My late father was a cardiovascular surgeon and throughout my life, I have had many people come up to me when they recognize my last name and tell me how he saved their lives through his work. This amazed me every time, and I have been inspired to potentially do the same for people through my line of work. Also, my little sister was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 2, while I was a senior in high school. Through this, I learned a great deal about the available devices that help improve the quality of life of those with diabetes and it has motivated me to work on creating something that would help them even more.

You scored a perfect 36 on the ACT in high school. How much studying did that take or are you naturally good at taking standardized tests?

I found that standardized testing was never about how much one studied, but more about one's mentality going into the test. For my ACT, I tried to get everyone to relax by buying 24 assorted donuts and conducting a donut draft before the test with those that were taking the test in the same room as me. I hoped it would help everyone loosen up, answer the questions calmly, and get a high score.

With that kind of score on an ACT, college choices must have been pretty open for you. What drew you to USC and why?

My college decision came down to here, Stanford, Harvard, or Duke. I was drawn to and eventually chose USC because of the environment, and I saw it as a school on the rise. I love that USC is in the middle of urban Los Angeles because I feel like I am actually in the real world, whereas other universities foster a bubbled off sense of reality that I did not agree with. Being around here gives one perspective, and the work that Steven Sample began and Max Nikias continued also factored in greatly. USC is actively striving to improve every year, which I admire.

Scholar-Athlete: Augusto Alonso

Scholar-Athlete: Augusto Alonso

Tags:

Trojans footer

University Southern California Trojans