Not only does USC boast world-class athletes, but world-class student-athletes as well. Each month, we will profile one of these outstanding Trojans who has chosen to pursue coursework in either the science, technology, engineering or math field (STEM).
Name: Elizabeth Turner
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Sport: Women's Rowing
Year: Senior
Major: Human Biology
Sarah Bergstrom (SB): What brought you here from Canada?
Elizabeth Turner (ET): I'm actually a dual citizen - Canadian and American, so we knew that it was an option to come to school in the United States. The U.S. has much better sports and sports scholarships, and I knew I really wanted to play a sport in college. I had never done rowing before, but my brother had walked on for rowing at Syracuse. I went on vacation to California and ended up checking out USC and I loved everything about it. It's one of the best schools in the country for kinesiology, it had great sports, it really fit everything I was looking for.
SB: Your track within the kinesiology program is in applied physiology, what does that mean?
ET: I love physiology. It's pretty much studying all of your body systems, all the anatomy, but then the applied part is knowing how we actually use those systems. My main interest is in human movement, the muscle part of it. I want to study how we can improve performance in sport. For example, I'm in a motor skills class that teaches us every single detail from your neurons to your muscles in how a movement happens. It's so cool.
SB: Do you know what you ultimately want to do?
ET: I just applied to physical therapy school, all over the place and here at USC. I don't know what my number one choice is yet, but I want to do physical therapy for athletes. I love that you get to help people but through muscles. It's not so extreme, like being a surgeon, but at the same time, you can really help people feel so much better. I've had to go to physical therapy a few times and after I was done I was so thankful for it. I knew I had to do that. There are a few physical therapists who are also trainers here in the athletic department and I get to observe them a few times per week. I think that's where I want to go with it.
SB: What made you want to do rowing? You did a lot of other sports in high school but what brought you to do something new?
ET: I think the starting point was having my older brother start rowing at Syracuse. He got really good, really fast and I saw that. When I got to exactly the same point as him, when I knew I couldn't keep doing figure skating here, I still wanted to do a sport. The novice coach for the rowing team sent out an email to all of the incoming freshmen girls. I got that email and showed up. I was so excited, but I was worried I wouldn't be able to pick it up fast enough to actually compete. In most sports, you really couldn't do that, so I picked it up pretty quickly. I think my body type was really well-suited for it. And now I'm here.
SB: Switching back to academics a little, have you always loved science?
ET: Both of my parents are scientists, I guess you could say. My mom is in animal science and my dad is in the biochemistry and genetics fields. One of his Master's degrees is in physiology. I grew up all my life with science as a back drop. Growing up, my dad did an entire study on why fish eyeballs don't freeze. He went to Antarctica to study fish. That's what I grew up with and I think that's fascinating. Science keeps finding new stuff. It's not every month or every year or when the Nobel Prize comes out, it's happening all the time. All the different fields come together to discover new things and I love that.
SB: Speaking of things coming together, how do you see what you do on the water overlap with what you're learning in the classroom?
ET: The two come together so much, I love it. The biggest thing that I've noticed is that every time I'm working out I literally think about what is going on in my body at that moment. When I go home in the offseason also, I'm able to plan out my lifting and my nutrition based on what I've learned in class. I'm able to train more efficiently that way too. I'm able to help my teammates with it. I'm normally in charge of coordinating our offseason lifting and conditioning, and every once in a while I throw in some nutrition stuff too.
SB: How has it been balancing a rigorous major with rowing?
ET: It's tricky. Somehow I've found a way to do it. The biggest thing is trying not to procrastinate. I'm pretty good at it, but it's really just learning to take advantage of the tiny time gaps you have between things. Every little hour is time to get something done. It's tricky with three-hour labs and two-hour practices, then you have to eat and study and sleep. It can be a lot.
SB: You're almost done with your undergraduate USC career. What has it meant to go here as you look back at how fast the last four years have gone?
ET: It has been the biggest blessing ever. Not only to take classes here but to get the opportunity to row here too. Especially since that's something that I really never expected. You have so many people supporting you all the time here. It's going to be really special for me looking back on our team. It's crazy to think that this is my last year, I want to maximize all the time I have with the team and pass on all the knowledge that I can to them. I think this season is going to be really special.
