University of Minnesota Athletics
Brandt Balances Academics, Athletics
3/11/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Hockey
March 11, 2016
The University of Minnesota's College of Continuing Education published the following profile on Gopher women's hockey senior forward Hannah Brandt, a Health and Wellness major studying in the college's Inter-College Program. View the story on the CCE website here: z.umn.edu/ccehb
By Kelli Billstein, College of Continuing Education
"Growing up, hockey was just something fun to do. I guess it was in high school that I realized I might be able to go somewhere with this," says Hannah Brandt, co-captain of the U of M Golden Gophers Women's Ice Hockey team.
That "somewhere," it turns out, could be Pyeongchang, South Korea, for the 2018 Winter Olympics to represent the U.S. in women's hockey.
Brandt, like many student athletes, is rather humble when she talks about herself. Her Olympic dreams and many goals, both on the ice and in the classroom, are mentioned with nonchalant composure. But do not be mistaken-Brandt has a lot to be proud of. She's a world-class champion hockey player, and she's also a driven student who's wrapping up her degree as an Inter-College Program major with a focus in Health and Wellness. Her typical week demands 40 hours of school and at least 20 hours of ice time, training, or playing games. Meanwhile, there are those five multicolored Olympic rings beckoning on the horizon.
"I don't know what's going to happen in my future," Brandt says. "My plan right now is to graduate with my degree, then I'll put off grad school [to be a PA] till I'm done playing hockey. That could be two years, four years, six years… it's not set in stone."
Brandt says she will join a professional women's ice hockey team when she graduates in the spring of 2016. This way, she'll be able to stay fit in the sport so she's ready for the U.S. Olympic tryouts in the summer of 2017. If she makes the team, there's another exciting possibility: she could be playing against her sister at the games.
"My sister Marissa is adopted from South Korea. Hockey is a big part of her life, too. She was contacted last year [2015] and asked to attend a training camp in South Korea to potentially play for the women's Olympic ice hockey team there," Brandt says. "I'm really excited for her. If it works out that we both go to the Olympics, that would be pretty awesome for our family. I just have to hold up my end and make the U.S. team."
Brandt says she chose to pursue a degree in the Inter-College Program because she had the opportunity to customize her degree to fit her interests, and she was able to take classes all over campus, in different departments. As one might expect, her interests lie in staying healthy and fit. So an ICP degree in Health and Wellness was an obvious choice for Brandt, who plans to go on to grad school to one day become a physician's assistant. But before Brandt can turn all her attention on her Olympic aspirations, there's another momentous ceremony before her: graduation from the U. "It's definitely tough being a student athlete. It would be easy to make hockey the priority, but we're here for school; we just happen to play hockey, too. It's a lot of work, but it's rewarding in the end to do both."
All that, of course, will wait until after she's retired her skates.
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