University of Minnesota Athletics
Rethwisch Receives Fulbright Award
4/27/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
April 27, 2015
By Rachel Timmerman, Athletic Communications Student Intern
MINNEAPOLIS -- A distance runner, a world traveler, a ukulele player, and a Fulbright Scholar.
No, these aren't four different people -- it's Rebecca Rethwisch.
The senior distance runner has a lot to boast about, especially her recently awarded Fulbright scholarship.
Rethwisch was one of seven seniors at the University of Minnesota to be awarded the grant to study and teach abroad after graduation. She'll graduate this May with a double major in Spanish/Portuguese and Global Studies, with an emphasis in advocacy from the School of Journalism.
And in March 2016, Rethwisch will embark on a year-long trip to Brazil to teach English at a university in Brazil.
Aside from teaching, she also will be pursuing two side projects.
"I suggested [in my essay] that I could use my athletic abilities and the fact that I've worked as a camp counselor to work within the community [and] start a running club," Rethwisch said. "This will be especially pertinent during the Olympics in the summer of 2016, as I'll be living there during them."
She'll also be continuing to independently pursue her honors thesis research on the religious syncretism between Catholicism and Candomblé (an ancient African religion that come to Brazil from Africa with the slave trade).
Even with those three things to keep her occupied, Rethwisch says she'll still have a lot of free time while in Brazil. And with the money that the program provides her with to travel, she'll be able to experience much of the country.
"You have a lot of free time to be a part of the culture and really interact with Brazilians and surround yourself with the language," Rethwisch said. "They really want their Fulbrighters to understand Brazil. They want [them] to be positive representatives of our country."
As a Fulbright scholar, Rethwisch will also serve as a cultural ambassador for America to Brazil.
"A lot of Fulbrighters go on to work at embassies or within the government," Rethwisch said. "I think a part [of the program] is seen as a training of how to be a cultural ambassador."
Before she was a Fulbright Scholar, Rethwisch was, and still is, a student-athlete at the U -- balancing athletics, classes and extracurricular activities.
"She's a very high achieving student," women's cross country head coach Sarah Hopkins said. "That can be a little bit daunting when trying to balance athletics and academics. She's done a really good job of trying to make the best out of both."
Rethwisch said the support she received from her coaches and advisors helped her accomplish her academic goals during her four years at Minnesota.
"I was doing so many things, I just don't think I could have done it all without that support," Rethwisch said. "I couldn't have done it without Coach Hopkins -- she's always really understanding and helps me balance my schedule."
Hopkins says she encourages her student-athletes to be well rounded and take advantage of what the U has to offer, even if that means having to adjust workouts and practices.
"We just try to be as flexible as we can be," Hopkins said. "The sport lends itself to that flexibility -- there's definitely a team element but also you can run a workout pretty much whenever."
Being involved in so many things, Rethwisch didn't always have the energy to put her all into running.
"Her athletic career has been a little rocky, and part of it is because she's gotten so involved," Hopkins said.
But not having the smoothest ride athletically has made her into a great team leader, especially with the younger runners, Hopkins said.
"She does a really good job of taking people under her wing when she sees people struggling with the same things she has struggled with," Hopkins said.
Along with helping lead her team, Rethwisch also plays the ukulele and sings around the campfire at their camps and has performed at the annual Golden Goldy Awards.
"She's a really talented musician," Hopkins said. "She's been blessed with a lot of talents in a lot of different areas. That one sometimes gets overlooked, but she's really phenomenal in that area."
Rethwisch has a while until she leaves for Brazil, but she'll still have her hands full.
She currently blogs for the International Youth Coalition, a subset of the Center for Family and Human Rights. And this summer, she'll be working at Camp Wojtyla, an adventure camp in the Rocky Mountains.
Following her adventure in the Rockies, she'll be a fellow at the John Jay Institute during the fall semester in Philadelphia after earning one of 16 spots in the prestigious leadership program.
The way Rethwisch looks at the world is different than most, Hopkins said, but that's a part of what's made her so successful in everything she does.
"Rebecca just has so many different sides to her personality and talent level," Hopkins said. "She's going to be ridiculously successful in whatever she does. She'll be one to follow and keep an eye on after she leaves the U."
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Players Mentioned
