Throughout the spring and summer, we'll be honoring our senior student-athletes with a "Senior Salute" series. Today's featured senior is Hannah Langer, an English and studio art major from Prides Crossing, Massachusetts. Langer is a member of the swimming and diving team.

Q: Why did you choose to attend The College of Wooster?
A: I liked the tight-knit community and I immediately felt at home when spending time with the swimming and diving team. Academically, the Independent Study program interested me and was something that I was excited to do senior year.

Q: What does it mean to you to be a Fighting Scot student-athlete?
A: It means having fans who wear tartan kilts and being led into a meet with bagpipers.  

Q: What are some of your favorite memories as a student at The College of Wooster?
A: I loved having the opportunity to bring some of my teammates into Ebert Art Center, show them my ceramics work, and share the history of the building. Fun fact: the ceramics studio was actually the site of the old pool! We've spent hours together in Ebert as I worked on my projects, and my teammates played and worked with a scrap of leftover clay I shared with them!

Q: What's the best part about being a student-athlete at The College of Wooster?
A: It means going from being covered in clay from a ceramics class in Ebert to being at Timken Natatorium swimming in under 10 minutes. It also means that after a difficult practice, I know that I can walk with teammates to Lowry and enjoy an hour of fun at a Lowry table before we hit the books!

Q: What else were you involved with on campus besides your sport?
A: I am a member of Sigma Tau Delta, the English honor society. I was involved with Worthy Questions, a program sponsored by Religious & Spiritual Life that explores questions of personal identity and emotions. However, my major love is Ebert Art Center, where I worked in the art department as a ceramics studio technician for the past three years. I fell in love with ceramics after my first course, and have been developing both my artistic and technical skills. I'm not sure whether I have spent more time at Timken or Ebert during my time at Wooster!

Q: Which College of Wooster faculty or staff member has made the greatest impact on you and why?
A: Dr. Margaret Wee Siang Ng from the history department had a great impact with my experience at Wooster because she helped me to foster a greater understanding of both an interesting subject in history and also my own identity. She helped me to understand history through a lesson that I had not thought of before and I'm excited to share it with other people.  

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: APEX (Wooster's center for advising, planning, and experiential learning) has helped me a lot with identifying opportunities outside of Wooster for both summer and permanent jobs.

Q: Tell us a bit about your Independent Study project?
A: I am a double major in studio art and English, so I am combining my two projects through a joint project. I was adopted from China when I was a baby and have started to think a lot more about what that means and how I fit in the Asian American community in the United States. I am answering that question through writing a memoir and creating sculptural pieces that reflect both my birth country and the experiences I have had in my adoptive country.

Q: Tell us a bit about something cool you did as a student at The College of Wooster?
A: I was really lucky and was able to study abroad for four weeks in Tuscany the summer between my sophomore and junior years. We earned academic credit for two courses, in religion and history, but the most spectacular thing about that trip was traveling around the Italian countryside with Dr. Madonna Hettinger and her husband.

Q: Reflecting back on your time at Wooster, what is one piece of advice you would give your first-year (freshman) self?
A: Do not be afraid to spend time in the moment. Through COVID, I have learned that you really cannot take anything for granted; if you want to do something do it! You never know if you will have that opportunity again.

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Interested in becoming a Fighting Scot?
Prospective student-athletes can click here to request more information from a coach and you can view the virtual campus tour here.