Throughout the spring and summer, we'll be honoring our senior student-athletes with a "Senior Salute" series. Today's featured senior is Paige Sogandares, a biology major from Reston, Virginia. Sogandares is a member of the swimming and diving team.

Q: Why did you choose to attend The College of Wooster?
A: It was the best fit in terms of academics and athletics. Plus, the weather's much drier and colder than where I'm from, which is nice.

Q: What does it mean to you to be a Fighting Scot student-athlete?
A: To be a hard worker in and out of the classroom and to devote myself to this school in both academics and athletics.

Q: What are some of your favorite memories as a student at The College of Wooster?
A: Some of my favorite memories are the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships with the team, I.S. Symposium, coming back to campus and reuniting with friends, and cooking with my roommates.

Q: What's the best part about being a student-athlete at The College of Wooster?
A: The best part is easier access to the Scot Center and Swigart Strength Center!

Q: What else were you involved with on campus besides your sport?
A: I wasn't involved in any campus organizations, but spent many weekends hiking with friends or helping out the Wooster Salamander Squad.

Q: Which College of Wooster faculty or staff member has made the greatest impact on you and why?
A: Dr. (Laura) Sirot. I hit a really low point in my junior year and Dr. Sirot caught on and set up a meeting so that we could talk about depression. She opened up to me and it really helped me to realize that it was okay to ask for help.

Q: What other people or resources impacted your Wooster experience in a positive way and how did these people/resources set you up to be successful at Wooster?
A: Dr. (Brian) Cope in the Spanish department was always so engaging and helpful. His classes were never boring and he always found a way to incorporate many topics into one lesson in an effective way. Al (Conrad) from the Lowry dining staff always brought a smile to my face. The fact that Al went out of his way to address every student by name was so thoughtful and genuine, and really represents what Wooster is to me.

Q: Tell us a bit about your Independent Study project?
A: I'm conducting a meta-analysis of antibiotic resistance to Helicobacter pylori in developing countries. It's a mouthful, but essentially I've been compiling resistance data from all over the world in order to better explain the current and future relationship between H. pylori and antibiotic resistance, where this relationship came from, why it's happening in developing countries, and whether or not outside factors, called predictors, influence the relationship in more ways than we may be able to see from a surface level.

Q: Tell us a bit about something cool you did as a student at The College of Wooster?
A: Honestly, my favorite experience is probably just Natural History of Vertebrates lab with Oria Daugherty and Riley Moreau. It was already such a fun class, but sitting around those smelly dead fish and reptiles with those two was infinitely fun, and I wouldn't exchange that experience for anything, even though it did smell pretty rank.

Q: Reflecting back on your time at Wooster, what is one piece of advice you would give your first-year (freshman) self?
A: Stand up for yourself in the same way you'd stand up for your friends. You're just as deserving of respect as anyone else.

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Interested in becoming a Fighting Scot?
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