Throughout the 2009-2010 academic year, the Northeast-10 and its member institutions will be featuring student-athletes across the conference in the brand new ‘Student-Athlete Spotlight’ section on the Northeast-10 website. Our 11th installment, submitted by Alex Pandolfi, Sports Information Assistant at Pace University, features cross country and track athlete Sarah Rodriguez.

By Alex Pandolfi, Pace University

Pace junior Sarah Rodriguez is a runner for both the cross country, and track teams for the Setters. Rodriguez is a co-captain for both teams, and has made her presence known while running for Pace. Rodriguez has been competitively running since her freshman year of high school, and while at Pace, Rodriguez has set school records in the 10K run, along with 3K steeple chase.

What isn’t very well known about the Ossining, New York native is what she does off the track, as well as what she dreams to become after she is done at Pace.

“I want to become a pediatric physical therapist,” said Rodriguez. “I would love to work with children.”

Rodriguez’s desire for working with children started with years of babysitting, and it also helped in her decision to go into pediatrics.

“A boy I used to babysit for was having some muscular problems, and they just weren’t functioning properly,” said Rodriguez. “There wasn’t much I could do, but I had a lot of concern for him and when his mom saw my concern, she suggested that pediatrics might be a good career choice.”

A good start in Rodriguez’s journey to becoming a pediatric physical therapist is something that she has done since her freshman year of high school, training puppies to become Seeing Eye Dogs.

“The puppies are really cute, but it’s a lot of work,” said Rodriguez. “They’re really like babies, and you need to keep after them 24/7.”

Rodriguez and her family would keep two or three Labrador puppies at a time for a period of five days. From there, the puppies are eventually taken to their new home to guide the blind.

One of Rodriguez’s first acts of volunteering toward children came in the form of “Paint a School Day,” which involves painting murals in less fortunate elementary schools in the Bronx.

As much as Rodriguez enjoys training puppies to become Seeing Eye Dogs, or help make schools look brighter for children, she finds that her most rewarding volunteer work has come from experience at the Blythdale Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, New York, where she started her work in October of 2009.

“Working at the hospital is definitely the most rewarding work I’ve done because you actually get to the see reactions of the children,” she said. “When I helped paint the schools, we did that on a weekend, so the children weren’t there, and with the puppies after you’re with them for five days, you never see them again. So being able to actually see a child’s reaction to your work, makes you feel great.”

While at the hospital, Rodriguez works with children ranging from the ages of five to 15. One of the numerous activities Rodriguez does at the hospital includes helping children with exercises to improve their ailments.

“There’s this one boy who does an exercise on a bike,” she said. “At first, he had to be pulled on the bike, but now you can see the improvement and that his legs are getting stronger.”

When she does graduate from Pace, Rodriguez has an interest in working in a hospital like Blythdale.

“It really makes you realize how fortunate you are, because a lot of them [the children] won’t be able to play sports, and we also take little things like walking for granted.”

Rodriguez has a great résumé for going into pediatrics, and her selflessness will go a long way if she wants to hold a career in that profession.