WATCH: Meet the Class of 2024 student-athletes – inspiring on and off the field

Stories by Graham Hays
Responsibility, drive, mental and physical excellence, and deep collaboration are hallmarks of Vanderbilt student-athletes.

Meet three scholar-athletes from the Class of 2024 who have embodied these traits to accomplish inspiring things on and off the field.

Jack Bulger is almost certainly one of the only players in NCAA history to strike out on the very first pitch he saw as a college student-athlete. The freshman catcher wasn’t in the starting lineup on Opening Day in 2021. But when a teammate was injured during an at-bat, coaches told Bulger to grab his batting helmet and enter it. Inheriting an 0-2 count, he dug in, watched a curveball cross home plate for strike three and trudged back to the dugout.

Ted Williams said that baseball is the only activity in which a person can fail seven times out of ten and still succeed. But hitting three on your first pitch? It was a bit ridiculous.

Fast forward to Vanderbilt Most recent opening day, and Bulger found himself at a different, better little club. There aren’t many seniors who hit their lineup’s first pitch of the season out of ballpark — Vanderbilt’s first season-opening home run in at least 21 years.

Whether it’s starting over 150 games for one of the best teams in the country or balancing an economics major and business minor in the College of Arts and Sciences and a digital manufacturing minor at School of Engineering, Bulger embodies what it means to never take a risk. opportunity for granted.

“You can’t control the results, but if you stay consistent in your routines and disciplined in what you do daily, then you will be successful,” Bulger said. “Maybe not in the short term, but it will play out over time. This applies to life. Whatever you do, if you are consistent in how you operate on a daily basis, you will be pretty good at what you do.

Read the rest of Jack’s story.>>

When she was in eighth grade, Haley Bishop noticed that a teammate on her track team was running in regular sneakers instead of the track-specific spikes that give competitive runners the grip needed to reach maximum speed . Rather than thinking of it as a source of amusement, something to tease them, she thought of the spikes on her feet – the spikes she was lucky enough to take for granted. She told her parents that it didn’t seem right, that someone had to do something. All right, they challenged her. What was his plan?

From these humble origins came We Set the Pace, a nonprofit organization that Bishop founded in college to encourage young people to “use their passion, discover their purpose, and use that knowledge to prepare for the future.” Spikes for the Soul, one of the organization’s first ongoing initiatives, provides new and gently used trail spikes to young runners in Fort Mill and Rock Hill, South Carolina, its hometown, who otherwise do not couldn’t afford to buy them.

The first year, her organization collected enough donations to purchase seven pairs of spikes. Shortly after handing them out, a coach told Bishop that one of the recipients had just won the county title. Who said athletics was an individual sport?

Connectivity has always fascinated Bishop – the way people influence, inspire and interact with each other. At Vanderbilt, this communications major learned to find her own voice in life’s conversations.

She also found a supportive community when the student-athlete qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships and then endured the frustrations and uncertainty of a long recovery from a injury. Because, like that county champion she helped reach new heights, few who reach the podium do so without the support of people who care enough to help them realize their dream.

From his family, with parents Heather and Quinset Bishop Sr. still his North Star, to Vanderbilt athletics director Althea Thomas and assistant sprints and hurdles coach Cameia Alexander, among a host of mentors , Bishop has his team.

“When other people believe in you, it helps you start to believe in yourself,” Bishop said. “I think all these years, with the village that I have around me, they have really helped me become who I am supposed to become.”

Read the rest of Haley’s story.>>

For the better part of two decades, Emily Gaven has enjoyed few things other than getting in the way of five ounces of vulcanized rubber being whipped around at speeds that would trigger a ticket on most highways. Such is the perilous life of a lacrosse goalie.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that she found it fun to take a course on business valuation, a subject that can seem intimidating to some. She enjoyed the intense collaboration and weekend hours working with a team in the Master of Finance program at the Owen Graduate School of Management. The work has expanded its boundaries. In the figures and details, she saw her future taking shape.

“I feel like I quickly became friends with the people in my program because we spent so much time together early on. Owen is a very collaborative environment,” Gaven said. “And I learned a lot about the skills needed to evaluate a business, which you’re probably going to take into your job after you graduate, if you work in finance.”

This is another thing that goalkeepers know better than anyone. The best way to stop the other team from getting the better of you and keep the ball from leaving you black and blue? Have a good team around you.

Read the rest of Emily’s story.>>