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: Jacky Hennegan
Sport: Women's Lacrosse
Year: Senior
Major: Industrial and Systems Engineering
Sarah Bergstrom (SB): I always like to start these by asking what brought you to USC. So let's start there...
Jacky Hennegan (JH): When I was looking at schools I wanted to play Division I lacrosse, I wanted to do ROTC - I grew up as a Navy kid so that's how I got into it - and then I wanted to be an engineer. USC was one of the best schools that had all three of those. I really thought it was cool that my first season was the inaugural season here so that was another big thing for me. On top of that, my older brother was also already going here. So all arrows really pointed to USC, it wasn't a hard decision for me at all.
SB: What did it mean to you to grow up in a Navy family and why was that something you felt was important to carry on?
JH: So both of my grandfathers were in the Navy and my dad was in the Navy. He was a submariner growing up and just retired a couple years ago after serving 33 years. It's always been a part of my life. My brother was already in the ROTC here at USC and he's actually in flight school now, he's going to be a pilot. So, it was kind of one of those things where I didn't have a huge plan outside of that and really thought it would be awesome to serve my country and give this a shot. I ended up getting the ROTC scholarship here and also was able to play lacrosse.
SB: Do you know what you want to do in the Navy yet? Or how does that process work?
JH: I don't know exactly what I want to do yet. I'm actually staying an extra semester next fall to finish up my degree because I couldn't quite get everything done with engineering and lacrosse and ROTC at the same time. I have to do service selections for ROTC soon so I'm trying to decide right now. I think I maybe want to do service ships or submarines but I'm not entirely sure yet.
SB: To be honest, I really don't know much about ROTC as a whole. Can you walk me through what the program is like and what your day-to-day schedule looks like?
JH: So starting with the long-term look, the Navy is paying my full tuition to go to school and in exchange, when I graduate, I commission the same day and I'll be an officer and I'll have to serve back five years. So I'll have a job right away and they'll send me somewhere in the world, anywhere that they need me at that time. After that, I can get out or continue to serve if I want to.
On a day-to-day level, we have PT which are workouts on Monday and Wednesday mornings. On Thursdays we all wear our uniforms and we have different lectures, briefs and lessons on the Navy. A pretty normal day for me goes like this: I go to PT in the morning, go to my classes in the middle of the day and then usually I'll have practice in the afternoon after all of that. We might have film and then I'll do homework done in the evening.
SB: Has your workload for ROTC grown over the last four years?
JH: I've gotten more and more responsibility as we've gone on. Last semester I was the battalion commander which is just like the senior midshipman in charge of everything. Then that got passed on to a different senior, since we sort of rotate each semester. This semester I'm in charge of planning all of our events, I'm the plans officer. I've had other roles too over the last couple of years.
SB: Why did you choose industrial and systems engineering as your major? Is that something a lot of students in ROTC do?
JH: I knew I wanted to do engineering but wasn't sure which type when I picked my major. I decided to go with ISE because it's pretty broad and covers a lot of different realms. I knew it was one I could probably handle better than mechanical or biomedical engineering, I just didn't have the time to get into those. I would say at least half of the people in ROTC are engineers and they prefer to have science and engineering majors. I think it'll definitely help me in my career in the Navy.
SB: Most of the time when I'm doing these interviews I'm asking, "How hard is to balance [blank] major with [blank] sport. You're balancing three things! How difficult has that been?
JH: It was challenging sometimes. There are a lot of very hard and fast requirements from my coaches and from my ROTC instructors and then a lot of requirements from my teachers as well. It's easy to do your work when there's someone watching over you, like in lacrosse or ROTC, but in school I have to have the discipline to do that on my own. Utilizing the time that I do have has been a big thing. I've figured out how to work smarter as I've gotten older and I've figured out that staying on top of things instead of letting them build up is how I stay the most successful.
SB: Are very many student-athletes here also in ROTC?
JH: There's one other guy in my Navy ROTC, Will Robinson, who is on the track team. He's a Marine. We had another water polo player but he only did it for the first two years. I think that's it.
SB: Switching to the lacrosse side a little bit, what has it been like to see you guys grow as a unit the last four years?
JH: It's been the craziest experience. I really can look back and see the difference in each season. Our team has grown so much and everyone's so happy to be where we are at right now. People are showing up to practice just excited to be there, excited to work hard and realistic about what is going to be required of us to keep winning each game. Our first season we were just young and trying to take on all these leadership roles right away. The next two years we were really trying to build and create a program - figure out what our traditions were, establish our identity, work to get our incoming classes to blend together. And this year we've really found ourselves and everyone is on the same page. I'm going to be really, really sad when it comes to an end at the end of the season.
SB: You used to be the team that lost by double-digits to most opponents and now you're the team that's out there winning back 10, 11, 12 goals or more. How fun is it to have been a part of that turnaround and be at the place you are now?
JH: I keep catching myself, looking back and thinking how did all of this happen suddenly? It's really hard to pinpoint and identify when it happened. It happened in the practices and it happened when everyone was together working hard, getting to know each other better. Our attack knows each other so well. Our defense is like one person divided into seven different bodies on the field it's so in-sync. That's the part we're really fortunate about. We've grown together the last four years, we know each other so well. It's a crazy feeling and I really feel so humbled to have had this experience, to actually see us get better year by year. It's really cool to get to be a part of what built this program.
