Sophia Pfannstiel '25 Recruiting Profile

I have always wanted to swim collegiately. Ever since I started competitive swimming at age nine, swimming for a college has been my biggest aspiration. Over the years, swimming has grown on me. This sport has come to mean so much more than I ever thought. To me, swimming means hard work, close friends, leadership, training before and after school, exceeding my goals, hating but also loving training more than anything, and the list goes on. I can talk about swimming for hours, about training, my coaches, teammates, goals, achievements, the people I've come to know from the sport, etc. The pool has become less of a place to train and more of a place to reset and refocus, a place to step back from stresses like teenage drama or tests. The lessons and friendships formed there mean more to me than anything and propel me to be the best version of myself. 

As a result of attending a college preparatory school, I keep very high expectations of myself academically. I fell in love with learning in the seventh grade in my history teacher, Mr. Partin's, class. We were learning American history and something stuck; I was so fascinated by the topic that I worked on my notes and assignments as if they were fine art. Mr. Partin made learning interesting again and challenged my curiosity in a way I had never once experienced. Since then I have been learning ever since. In college, I want to study law and go on to be a lawyer. I feel drawn to the way of law due to a class I had also in the seventh grade. My art teacher that year was new to my school and was interesting, to say the least. He couldn't talk while you drew, graded seventh-graders projects very harshly, expected that every piece had some deep meaning behind it, and taught more sculpture than drawing in a drawing class; he was a piece of work. But every time that teacher struck down horrendous grades or got angry at someone for working while he talked, I said something. One day a girl in my class said to me, "Sophia, you should be a lawyer since you argue with our teacher so much," and it just made sense. I understand that to assume this job I must undergo graduate school, but I am fully committed to furthering my educated and pursuing whatever job fits me best. 

I am passionate about swimming. After putting my blood, sweat, and tears into this sport it's hard to say anything less. Every practice is a new opportunity to further enhance my skills. In the last week of 2021, I accompanied my team on a training trip in Coronado, California. Seeing California was beautiful, but the practices we did were not. Two practices stand out to me in particular: one in the middle of the week, the other on the last day. Without going into details about what the practice was, it was arguably the best and hardest practice I have ever had. The idea of stopping in the middle of it was so taunting, but when I remember why I swim and what my goals are, I can't stop. No matter how much it hurts I know that I will live through it and that the extra mile will make all the difference. 

Swimming, as a sport, has taught me an abundance of things that my school or my parents will never; the most prominent of this being leadership. Two years back, under a different coach, he asked to speak to me after practice along with two of my friends. He thanked us for not stopping during the set and how we pushed our limits. He continued to say how this action helped the rest of our practice not stop and continue to try their best. This moment has stuck with me throughout the years. Swimming has taught me the importance of leadership. You're likely to be heavily influenced by who you're following, and if you're following an aurora of animosity, the more likely you are to become an aura of animosity. It's up to that leader to empower their group, whether that be for good or bad. Via years of competing and training, I have been around and been a leader and absorbed the traits of a resourceful, intellectual, and moral leader that, rather than influencing for evil, influences others to push past what they believe they can do and reach their full potential.