Furman achieves highest GPA while working as baseball manager
By SCOTT BRODFUEHRER
Assistant News Editor
In addition to having the highest grade point average of all of her classmates, Saint Mary's valedictorian Katie Furman also serves as the head manager of Notre Dame's baseball team, the equivalent of a full-time job.
Furman has a 3.98 grade point average and is double majoring in marketing and management with a minor in mathematics, but she said she was very surprised to be named valedictorian.
"I obviously don't think about that kind of stuff because I am [at the baseball field] all the time, so I would never really have thought about being valedictorian," said Furman.
Since her freshman year, Furman has been a manager. During her freshman and sophomore years, she worked with many sports but for the past two years she worked solely with the baseball team.
The baseball team was her main extracurricular activity, requiring her to work almost 10 hours a day during the season and travel extensively for the first part of the season, when the team is on the road for the first 22 games because South Bend weather is not conducive to baseball games.
Furman said that she spends a great deal of time studying when she is not traveling and said that being busy helps her be more productive.
"I take a computer on the road and I do a lot of work before I am on the road and I spend a lot of hours in the library. I also think that when your time is filled up with other activities like [baseball], I get more stuff done. I think if I sat at home and didn't really do anything, I wouldn't be motivated. In a way being really, really, really busy has been a benefit to make me do my work," she said.
Furman said that her speech at Saturday's commencement exercises will be a fun one.
"The main focus is on the memories that we have had over the past four years. It will be kind of light-hearted; there will be sad parts, but not a whole lot.
Furman, an Akron, Ohio native, attended Our Lady of the Elms High School and knew Saint Mary's was her first choice after visiting the campus.
"I liked the atmosphere, I liked how friendly everyone is and I like how challenging Saint Mary's is," said Furman.
Following graduation, Furman will work with the baseball team through the end of their season, which could last until late-June if the team reaches the College World Series. Furman said she has aspirations to work in the management of a professional baseball team.
"I would actually like to work for a baseball team in the front office. I would like to own my own baseball team someday, but that's a really, really long time away and a lot of money away from me right now," she said.
The Saint Mary's valedictorian is the student with the highest grade point average in the graduating class.
All News Stories for Friday, May 17, 2002
