Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2008 - (Page 15)

SPORTS women’s rowing as an athlete, Meltzer says. “Ashley’s a consistent and vocal leader.” At the beginning of the last school year, Pritchard stuck a pink Post-it Note on her wall. “Make the Head of the Charles boat,” it read, referring to the regatta held near Harvard College’s Weld Boathouse. That fall, she achieved her goal, being one of 18 rowers her coaches selected from the team of 50 to compete in one of the world’s largest rowing competitions. A “long-term sticky note,” Pritchard says, is to visit all seven continents. She’s halfway there, having journeyed with her family to Africa, Switzerland, Australia, Central America, Italy, and Spain. At Lehigh, she studied abroad in London, where she rowed with the Cambridge crew team. This summer, Pritchard crossed another country off her list when she took a two-week trip to New Zealand as a Martindale Scholar. While there, she and 11 other Lehigh students discussed economic issues with government ofﬁcials, politicians, and economists. Pritchard is writing a thesis for publication on the country’s unique immigrant work program. This year, Pritchard—never one to slacken her pace—has a Post-it Note reading “law school.” Pritchard studied and interned at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Next year she hopes to continue rowing, with or without a team, while pursuing a degree in law.—Becky Straw POST-IT NOTES AND NO EXCUSES While watching Ashley Pritchard practice her stroke on the ergometer, the head rowing coach noticed that, in a rare moment, her pace slackened. children from South Bethlehem to play kick“No excuses,” Pritchard, now a senior, rememball, tug-of-war, ﬂag football, soccer, Frisbee, bers Liz Meltzer, the Steven J. ’69 and Karen and many more sports with the university’s stuA. Lee Head Rowing Coach, telling her. dent-athletes. Many of the middle-school chilPritchard adopted the mantra. “You don’t have dren had never been on a college campus. any excuses because you have nothing else to Pritchard’s dedication to community service do for eight minutes,” she says. was recognized this year when she was awarded Pritchard has used “no excuses” on or off both the Service Above Self Leadership Award the water. Not only does her coach say she is and the Vice Provost for Service Award. an indomitable force in the boat, Pritchard In high school, Pritchard played soccer, also received the Class of 1904 Scholarship tennis, and lacrosse, but when she walked onto Award and was selected as a tour guide for the Lehigh’s crew team as a ﬁrst-year student, the board of trustees meeting last year. To Pritchard, “no excuses” means working older rowers warned her: “It’s the hardest sport hard every hour of her day, from the moment you will ever play.” the alarm sounds at 4:27 a.m. for practice until She considered that hyperbole until she she climbs into bed at 11 o’clock that night. actually sat in the boat. “It’s not just physically In her classes, “no excuses” means spendtiring but mentally punishing,” she says. ing a few extra minutes reﬁning papers for her During her first two years at Lehigh, political science and economics majors. Pritchard rowed in the lightweight boat as the “No excuses” also calls Pritchard to devote bowman, the ﬁrst seat to cross the ﬁnish line. herself to the Community Service Office, But last year, she moved to the opposite end of where she has worked for the past three years. the boat, the seventh position, where she helps Her role in co-founding the Hunger and to set the stroke’s rhythm. Homelessness Awareness Week in 2008 with Her seat change signifies her maturation Tiffany Searles ’08 earned the program the Outstanding Educational Programming Award in 2008. In high school, Pritchard served in a soup kitchen in Hemlock Alley, San Francisco, but she learned that many Lehigh students have not interacted with the hungry. As a result, they often assume that people without permanent residences are all drug addicts and drunkards, she says. The National Hunger and Homelessness Week, held Feb. 18-22, was designed to strip away such misconceptions about poverty and foster compassion. Pritchard’s teammates supported her efforts. The entire crew team bought T-shirts to raise money for the national program, and several members slept with her in cardboard boxes on the University Center Front Lawn during one of the week’s events. Pritchard also founded the Wonderful World of Sports, a day for middle-school Pritchard strives to attain her personal rowing goals, which are written on Post-it Notes. fall 2008 15 PHOTO BY DOUGLAS BENEDICT

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Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2008 Contents From the President's Desk Mailbox On Campus Research Arts & Culture Sports Cover Story: The Dalai Lama at Lehigh Heart of a Champion Around the World in 80 Years Fighting for Children wth Autism Keepers of the Flame From the Publisher's Desk Alumni News The Last Word

Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2008

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