Sara Piaskowy ’07
Sara Piaskowy ’07 had no idea what she was getting into when she tried out for the Princeton women’s crew team as a freshman. She ran cross country in high school, but had never rowed before. She was a head shorter than some of her teammates, meaning she’d have to work twice as hard on the water to keep up.
“Being new to rowing I didn’t realize I had just joined a world class team,” says Piaskowy, who hails from Crete, Illinois. “The magnitude of the program hit me the spring of my freshman year.” To be a member of the Princeton crew team is to be part of one of the most storied and successful programs in college rowing. Eight Princeton alumni rowed for the U.S. national team in the Sydney Olympics and nine are on the national team’s current roster.
All the history and success made Piaskowy want to compete that much harder. “I loved being held to such high standards,” she says. She didn’t even mind the hours of practice every day, sometimes before most of her classmates have awakened. “I considered it my two-and-a-half-hour mandatory stress release each day,” jokes the civil and environmental engineering major.
For two of her four years at Princeton, Piaskowy was co-president of the Princeton chapter of the Society of Women Engineers. She helped organize the annual High School Colloquium, during which 50 local high school girls and their parents spend an action packed day with female engineering students and faculty learning why engineering is more than rebar and calculators.
“‘Engineer’ is a catchword,” says Piaskowy. “The goal of the program is to give them an idea of how engineering applies to real-world activities.”
For Piaskowy, several Princeton classes taught her the far-reaching implications of engineering, particularly in relation to public policy and environmental sustainability.
In a class called “Environmental Decision Making,” Piaskowy and her classmates examined global warming, beach erosion and the Kyoto Protocol from technical as well as policy angles. They even held a mock congressional hearing on global warming.
For her freshman seminar, Piaskowy took “The Ocean Environment,” which brought students up to speed on basic oceanographic scientific methods, then shipped them off to Bermuda for hands-on research at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences.
Perhaps her most influential engineering class was her first, “Introduction to Environmental Engineering” with Professor Catherine Peters.
“I really felt like this was something I could do and do well,” says Piaskowy. “There was something about the way [Professor Peters] taught and the confidence she gave us throughout the course.”
After that, Piaskowy met with Peters each semester to get her advice before choosing classes. When she ran into a snag in the beginning stages her senior research project, she sent Peters an anxious e-mail. She responded immediately, says Piaskowy. “We talked for an hour and a half about my thesis. She took time out of her busy schedule to help me. She didn’t have to do that by any means.”
Piaskowy spent a large part of her summers studying abroad. Her travels took her to Italy, Argentina and England, much of it paid for by Princeton grants and special summer abroad funds. She was also an active member of Athletes in Action, a Christian fellowship group on campus.
“Being new to rowing I didn’t realize I had just joined a world class team,” says Piaskowy, who hails from Crete, Illinois. “The magnitude of the program hit me the spring of my freshman year.” To be a member of the Princeton crew team is to be part of one of the most storied and successful programs in college rowing. Eight Princeton alumni rowed for the U.S. national team in the Sydney Olympics and nine are on the national team’s current roster.
All the history and success made Piaskowy want to compete that much harder. “I loved being held to such high standards,” she says. She didn’t even mind the hours of practice every day, sometimes before most of her classmates have awakened. “I considered it my two-and-a-half-hour mandatory stress release each day,” jokes the civil and environmental engineering major.
For two of her four years at Princeton, Piaskowy was co-president of the Princeton chapter of the Society of Women Engineers. She helped organize the annual High School Colloquium, during which 50 local high school girls and their parents spend an action packed day with female engineering students and faculty learning why engineering is more than rebar and calculators.
“‘Engineer’ is a catchword,” says Piaskowy. “The goal of the program is to give them an idea of how engineering applies to real-world activities.”
For Piaskowy, several Princeton classes taught her the far-reaching implications of engineering, particularly in relation to public policy and environmental sustainability.
In a class called “Environmental Decision Making,” Piaskowy and her classmates examined global warming, beach erosion and the Kyoto Protocol from technical as well as policy angles. They even held a mock congressional hearing on global warming.
For her freshman seminar, Piaskowy took “The Ocean Environment,” which brought students up to speed on basic oceanographic scientific methods, then shipped them off to Bermuda for hands-on research at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences.
Perhaps her most influential engineering class was her first, “Introduction to Environmental Engineering” with Professor Catherine Peters.
“I really felt like this was something I could do and do well,” says Piaskowy. “There was something about the way [Professor Peters] taught and the confidence she gave us throughout the course.”
After that, Piaskowy met with Peters each semester to get her advice before choosing classes. When she ran into a snag in the beginning stages her senior research project, she sent Peters an anxious e-mail. She responded immediately, says Piaskowy. “We talked for an hour and a half about my thesis. She took time out of her busy schedule to help me. She didn’t have to do that by any means.”
Piaskowy spent a large part of her summers studying abroad. Her travels took her to Italy, Argentina and England, much of it paid for by Princeton grants and special summer abroad funds. She was also an active member of Athletes in Action, a Christian fellowship group on campus.