Jonathan Rodriguez Gomez '19 Recruiting Profile

As a collegiate student-athlete I want to further expand my knowledge in physics and mathematics to reach my lifetime goal of becoming an astrophysicist and become one of the nation’s best runners, while also changing the lives of those around me through my academics, athletics, and simple everyday person to person interactions. I am a good candidate for any team because I am able to lead people and also able to be led by others to do our best as a group, not individuals. What sets me apart from other recruits is the fact that I know that there isn’t much that makes me different from them when it comes to school and sports— we all work extremely hard towards our running and academic goals and actually achieve them. Specially with the intellectually and athletically gifted individuals who make up the cross country and distance track community. Unlike most of the other recruits however, I was not born in the United States and was not initially presented with opportunities to make my family’s lives and my own life better from what it used to be when we lived in Mexico. When my family and I moved to the U.S. in 2010, even as a 3rd grader I knew I had to take advantage of these new opportunities that were presented to me with the education system in the U.S. Even though I did not fully and fluently speak English until the 6th grade, I have managed to climb my way up to the top in academic performance in a new language and have managed to become one of the best runners in the conference that I compete in despite a language barrier and family issues from the past, and I will only continue to improve my academic and athletic performances exponentially. I truly beleive that my mental strength and mental perseverance sets me apart from the rest of the recruits. I hope to find the best college fit for me in order to help me achieve my goals.