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Name: Pawel FurtekClass: Junior
Sport: Swimming
Major: Computer Engineering & Computer Science
GPA: 3.9
Aubrey Kragen (AK): Coming from Poland, how did you hear about USC in the first place? And how did you decide to come here?
Pawel Furtek (PF): Back in middle school, my coach told me about studying in America, how it allows you to be a top student and top swimmer at the same time, and it really stuck in my head. Back then, I would look at universities around here, and I remember looking at USC and seeing Coach Dave Salo here. He's a very well-known coach around the world. And I would think, 'Oh that would be so cool to come here.' So flash forward to summer of 2013, I was at the World Junior Championships and when I was in Dubai, I received a Facebook message from an assistant coach from USC, asking 'Have you ever thought about studying in the U.S.?' and I was like, 'Heck yeah.' I checked that he was actually a coach at USC and I was like, 'This is just perfect!' After that message, I was sure I wanted to come here ... It was just a dream come true.
AK: When and how did you get interested in computer science?
PF: Actually, if I stayed in Poland, I would be a lawyer. I actually applied to law school and got in back in Poland. But I've always also liked math and logic, so I feel like computer science and engineering are things that use a lot of math and a lot of logic. So I said, 'I'll give it a try.' And honestly, I'm so happy I didn't go to law school, because this major is just everything I've always wanted to do.
AK: Why do you like it so much?
PF: I really like coding, which is weird, because it's a very long process to write a program. But I really like the fact that I build it from scratch --- from nothing to the final product. And also, the moment when your code finally works, even if it's just printing 'Hello, World' or something, it's such a great experience.
AK: What do you think you want to do with your degree?
PF: I'm not sure yet. I'm sure I want to code. My major is really computer science and computer engineering, so it's the software part and the hardware part. I think I want to focus on the software part of my major. I'm actually interning right now with a mobile development company ... That would be awesome if I could do mobile development, but really I'm still open to any opportunity.
AK: I've heard before that math and numbers are the same in any language. Do you think that has helped you in your classes, considering English isn't your first language?
PF: That's what I really like about computer science --- especially in my freshman year, English was still pretty hard. I knew the language, but it was still pretty hard to understand, it was hard to speak, because everyone around me was a perfectly native speaker. But when we were learning coding language, everyone was at the same level. It was even. So I feel like that made me like it more, because I wasn't at a disadvantage.
AK: Does the mental toughness that it takes to do long distance swimming translate to the classroom?
PF: Obviously, if you're a distance swimmer, you have to have a certain mentality ... I feel like my distance swimming helps me with school, because I spend a lot of time actually swimming, and not standing at the wall. So when you swim and you can only hear the water buzzing, it clears your mind a lot. And in my major, you often have an algorithm problem that would take two days to solve, and you think about it constantly. And in those moments when I swim, those are the moments when I come up with the best ideas ... It's really cool to think about something while you swim. It also helps you get through practice if it's hard --- you don't focus on how hard it is, you focus on school.
AK: What did it mean to you and your family to earn CSCAA Scholar All-American team honorable mention honors last year?
PF: My family is very supportive of me. They always ask me how I'm doing in school, and even if I do badly, they're like, 'OK, it's fine, it's college.' But honestly, it means a lot to me, because back in Poland, being an athlete would mean they don't do well in school. And even here, when you hear 'student-athlete,' you think of them as people who get through classes just because they're athletes and they would fail otherwise ... So I really want to prove to myself, to my teammates and to non-athletes that a student-athlete actually can do well in school and beat other people in the classroom.
AK: Lastly, what goals do you have going forward as a student and an athlete?
PF: Well as an athlete, I want to final at NCAAs this year. Last year I got 10th --- I was a second behind being eighth. That would be awesome if I could do that this year. I feel like I'm ready and the coaches think I'm ready. And for academics, honestly, I just want to get straight As. That's what Dave [Salo] always tells us ... Our coach is great at forcing this mentality on us, that we need to do well in the classroom as well as in the pool. He always tells us that we're not football, we're not basketball --- we're not going to make a living out of swimming. There's a very small probability that you're actually going to be Michael Phelps ... he always tells us that what you're going to do in the classroom is going to matter in your future.
