Tech Topics - Fall 2007 - (Page 25)

StudentLife Balancing Act Atlanta Ballet dancer stays on her toes with job, studies By Brad Dixon L FRESHMAN CLASS FACTS Nearly 2,700 high-achieving students, some engineering majors named Matthew and Sarah, enroll at Tech CHARLIE McCULLERS ike a lot of college students, Courtney Necessary often has trouble dragging herself out of bed in the morning — but not because she keeps hitting the snooze button. She needs that extra 10 minutes because of the tremendous toll ballet dancing takes on her body. “Sometimes we get really, really sore,” said Necessary, a 22-year-old dancer for the Atlanta Ballet who also is a management major at Georgia Tech. “I can pop just about every joint in my body. Luckily I haven’t had any bad injuries, just a few broken bones. I once broke my nose from kneeing myself in the face, and I cracked my tailbone.” After enduring eight hours of dance rehearsals a day, Necessary has come to the College of Management for evening classes since enrolling at Tech in 2003. Her 35-week-a-year contract with the Atlanta Ballet frees her up to take more classes during the summer and Necessary expects to be a senior by spring. She felt drawn to attend Tech because her father, Stephen Necessary, is a 1978 engineering economics systems graduate, and she believes a management degree will open doors to great job opportunities after her dancing career ends. Necessary said most female dancers peak around age 26 and usually leave the profession by 30 because of the severe physical demands. Focusing her management studies on finance, Necessary has already gotten some real-world business experience by serving on the finance committee for the Atlanta Ballet’s union, helping find inventive solutions to the types of financial struggles faced by many arts organizations. “With ballet, the audience just sees the visual element,” Necessary said. “They have no idea what goes on behind the scenes. It really is run like a normal company.” People often ask Necessary if she’d one day like to run her own ballet company, but right now her interests lean more toward joining the growing green movement of environmentally friendly, sustainable businesses in a financial capacity. Before her dancing days end, she sometimes dreams of joining a bigger company somewhere like San Francisco, but Necessary said she probably loves Atlanta too much to leave. Her family lives here, and her older sister also is a dancer for the Atlanta Ballet. “I love the company,” Necessary said. “Since we’ve got only 21 dancers, we get lots of great opportunities to perform different parts.” C ampus was abuzz in August as a freshman class of nearly 2,700 students arrived at Georgia Tech. Last year, a record 2,800 students enrolled in Tech, sending campus housing scrambling to accommodate them. Housing officials were hunting for extra beds, wardrobes, chairs and desks for the students just weeks before their arrival. About 480 freshmen were living three to a room. In March, Georgia Tech acquired four residence halls at the corner of North Avenue and Centennial Olympic Park Drive. Originally built to house Olympic athletes during the 1996 Summer Games, the residence halls became the property of Georgia State University in the fall of 1996. The dormitories, which can house about 2,000 students are President’s Scholarship recipients in three- to six-bed apartments, are and 129 freshmen are participating in now home to Georgia Tech upperthe Honors Program. classmen. • Georgia Tech Get to know Promise scholarships this year’s freshwere awarded to 43 men. Here are incoming freshmen some facts on the with financial needs. first-year students: • The top five • Applications majors for the freshwere submitted by man class are biomed9,673 prospective ical engineering, students. mechanical engi• Acceptance neering, management, letters were sent aerospace engineering to 6,121 appliThe former Georgia State dorms are and computer science. cants. now Tech’s North Avenue Apartments. • Females make • The aveup 32 percent of the rage high school fall 2007 freshman class. grade point average of incoming • About 40 percent of the first-year freshmen is 3.74. The mean SAT score students are non-Georgia residents. is 1343. Fifty-eight first-year students TECHTOPICS The freshmen hail from every U.S. state except Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, with the top feeder states being Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Texas. The newest Georgia Tech students represent 56 countries. • This year, 573 freshmen are legacy students, with a sister, brother, mother, father or grandparent who attended or graduated from Tech. • There are eight sets of twins. • The most common surnames of incoming freshmen are Kim, Lee, Smith, Patel and Johnson. • The most popular female names are Sarah, Katherine, Amanda, Jessica, Lauren and Megan. • The most common male monikers are Matthew, Andrew, Christopher, Michael and David. GT 25 | FALL 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Tech Topics - Fall 2007

Contents Mail Call Alumni House Historic Renovation 007 Buzz Bash Dazzling Daylilies Living History Cover Story: Key to the City The Hill Tapping Technology Robotics Rivalry No Easy Ride Giving Back Balancing Act Student Life Burdell & Friends Epic Story of Heroism Yellow Jackets Very Good Team Passport to Retirement Real World

Tech Topics - Fall 2007

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