Name: Luke Owings

Hometown: Hyattsville, MD

Activities at Princeton: Men’s Basketball Team, Vice President of the Varsity Student Athletic Academic Committee, Student Representative on the Faculty Advisory Committee, Undergraduate Liaison to the Economics Department

Before I came to Princeton, I was a student and an athlete who played by the rules. I always took for granted how things were and did my best within those confines without ever stretching the boundaries myself. I was passionate about both my schoolwork and my athletics, but that’s where my responsibility ended.

I grew at Princeton by becoming more active behind-the-scenes in the activities that I was a part of. Rather than just being a student, I became a liaison to my economics department and talked to the administration about student concerns. Rather than limiting myself to being an athlete on the court, I became involved in questions surrounding the actual lives (outside of sports) of our student-athletes. I attended and participated in meetings where topics ranged from something as narrow as getting student-athletes to remain hydrated and as wide as dealing with stereotyped threats on campus. This all culminated in my current push to create an Ivy League-wide, athlete-run charity to help athletes get involved in issues bigger than the everyday.

I supported “cross-pollination” by doing my best to remain active in groups across very different disciplines. I pushed myself not just as a student, not just as an athlete, but really found myself as a “student-athlete”; the one could no longer exist without the other.

After reflecting on my experience at Princeton, I have realized that students should take a hard look at what exactly they are passionate about, and find ways to extend that passion as far as they have something to give. I also have concluded that regardless of the differences in superficialities of our activities, many of us are learning the same things; the staples of what it takes to succeed.

Go to next testimonial
Go to previous testimonial
Go to testimonials home