- Josh Pope,
ISU senior hurdler
This afternoon I filed my taxes. I’m the type of person that can’t bring myself to file my taxes until three days before they’re due — at the earliest. As I droned through boxes of wages, tips, and federal income tax withheld, I came to a halt at a simple question: what is your occupation? I typed student, and although I was eager to move on and get the tax-filing process over with, I couldn’t. It hit me—this is the last time I’ll tell the IRS I’m a student.
I’m graduating.
There’s a weird rush of emotions that comes with college graduation. In one regard, I’m incredibly relieved to be done with schoolwork. My brain could use some relaxation. Contrarily, the pressure and time commitment of ‘real work’ is daunting, and I hope I’m ready for it.
For me and my soon-to-graduate peers, the commencement ceremonies this May are the paramount event of the past four (or five) years. It’s more than two hours of robed students in a gym; it’s the portal from school to the real world. As an aspiring professional sports reporter, it’s imperative I build a rapport with athletes. A good sports reporter not only communicates with athletes about what goes on during the game, but also about what goes on during everyday life.
With graduation occupying my daily thoughts and sports reporting on the horizon, the question was born: What’s it like to be a graduating college athlete?
To answer this, I came into contact with Josh Pope, a 21-year-old a senior hurdler on the ISU track team who’s graduating this May with a degree in economics.
“Students who aren’t in sports, when they look to graduation, they think to themselves, ‘this is my last test, or this is my last class. I think this is my last meet,” Pope says. “[My last meet] has been circled on my calendar for a while. It’s actually the day of graduation, so I don’t get to walk.”
How’s that for a symbolic coincidence? When I asked Josh if he had the choice of walking at graduation or running in his last meet, he didn’t hesitate.
“I would not walk. I’d definitely compete one last time,” Pope says.
He told me, as a whole, the members of the men’s track and field team take their academics pretty seriously. They take pride in their team GPA of 3.1. Still, I wondered—does devoting a major amount of time to practice take away from an athlete’s ability to succeed academically?
“I’m missing out on work experience, internships… resume builders. The athletics department and the academic apartments help [athletes] get the most out of our time. They try and help us,” Pope says.
Despite this, I sensed a little uneasiness. Since day one at ISU, the importance of being involved in resume-boosting activities has been stressed to me by both teachers and peers. Scholarship athletes like Pope are at a disadvantage here; they lack the time to intern, participate in student organizations, study, and compete all at once. I wondered — at a job interview, how would an athlete use involvement in sports to his advantage?
“If I’m lucky enough to hand in my resume to someone who did a sport in college, they’ll look at that and say ‘oh, I understand the work ethic and time commitment,” Pope says.
He also believes because he’s an economics major, he won’t be facing job interviews just yet.
“It’s kind of hard to get a job in the economics field with just a bachelor’s degree because [the degree] is so broad, it’s not specialized. So, going to grad school, I can focus and specialize on a certain thing,” Pope says.
Josh, myself, and every other graduating student will have memories of ISU. Whether it be the anxious first days in the dorms or relaxing, sun-soaked afternoons on the quad, this place becomes a part of you after four years. But unlike regular students, many of an athlete’s fondest ISU experiences occur elsewhere.
“When I look back at memories, a lot of them are at meets that didn’t take place at ISU. But I do thank ISU for providing me the opportunity to make those memories,” Pope says.
As much as Pope enjoys being both a student and an athlete, he admits there are times when it’s a lot to juggle. All students have had what I like to call a hell week — when multiple professors conspire against you at the same time, and the result is an unconquerable mountain of schoolwork.
“I’ll have times where I’m up late studying for an exam, and my coach will call me and tell me we have 6 a.m. practice tomorrow morning,” Pope says. “I’m up at 2:30 in the morning studying, and it’s like ‘wow, I have to run in four hours.’ Or, this week, I had four exams, one on every day [Monday through Thursday]. This week, we’re going to the University of Tennessee for a meet, so I had to take two exams on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I’m one of the only guys who is graduating this May, on time. My roommate, who’s on the team, is an education major, and there’s no way he can student teach while competing. Other guys who major in athletic training need four-and-a-half years too,” Pope says.
Despite all the hours of practice, studying, and nine-hour bus rides, Pope understands his dual roles of student and athlete. Somehow, he also manages to work at Avanti’s on his only day off, Sunday. Although their resumes lack the boosters many consider essential, any athlete who works as hard as Josh Pope should face the professional world without fear.
I, on the other hand, am a bit nervous. I’m not sure what I’ll type under Occupation on next April’s tax return.