The Guilfordian sat down with Jeremiah Hedrick, a junior multi-sport student athlete at Guilford College who also serves as co-vice president of the Guilford Student Body Association. The track star and starter on the football team’s defense shared his experiences thus far at Guilford that helped mold where he looks to go next in life.

Q: What made you choose Guilford?

A: Well first thing’s first, my mom told me to be a student athlete. I love sports, particularly football and track. Guilford has a football and track team, and they came and recruited me. They also offered me the most financial aid. But education-wise, this is the place I wanted to go to. I’ve been able to study exercise and sport science, and health science which was a big part of my decision.

Q: How does your experience as an athlete complement your experience as a student?

A: I got the initiative of work ethic from football because we were the first students on campus. It got me into the mindset of ‘Okay, I have to work in order to keep up with the pace.’ When (classes) started, I was already prepared because I knew I needed to work in order to stay ahead. I honestly think sports taught me drive and how to keep it going.

Q: What is the importance of work ethic to you today?

A: I think work ethic has been my main drive. I’ve always known I wasn’t the smartest kid, but if I put in enough work, I can get where I want to be. You might not have been born with certain talents or skills like others, but if you put in the work, you won’t be far behind them. That’s always been my main drive. That’s how my parents brought me up.

Q: What organizations and activities are you involved in outside of football and track?

A: I am the co-vice president of GSBA. I also assist the Campus Activities Board (CAB) and the Office of Student Leadership and Engagement (OSLE) with different events. As a community scholar, I have been a part of a lot of community service. I have also been a part of Guilford Christian Ministry. I just like being involved. I feel like being involved helps my experience here at Guilford.

Q: How do you prioritize your activities? Do you rank one organization or group over another?

A: Yeah, probably GSBA because of the political aspect of it. I’ve never been in a leadership role like this one. A lot of my decisions and a lot of the student voices that I hear can change a lot of things. It’s nice to be in a high position because I just want to help, so I think that’s the one priority I put above others because it affects a lot of people.

Q: Do you think your experience as an athlete helped with leadership skills?

A: Yes, sports ties into the dynamic of wanting the best and wanting success. Sports taught me the aspects of leadership: bravery, courage, respect and discipline. There’s a lot of transferrable skills there.

Q: How do your experiences today at Guilford compare to when you were a first-year?

A: I wasn’t involved at all. I just played football, ran track and kept my mouth closed. I hated that I did that because I feel like my first-year sucked. I feel like I didn’t take the effort to go out and try to change something or be a part of something. I wasn’t really focused on making school fun or making friends. Sophomore year, I noticed I’m not going to enjoy my experience if I don’t take advantage of everything that is offered to me. I can definitely say I was anti-social my first-year, and I don’t know what the turning point was for me, but I know my whole sophomore year was a shift.

Q: Have you taken a class at Guilford that was outside of your major?

A: Yeah, astronomy. I’ve never been so interested in space until I got into that class. Half of the class was lecture, but the other half we would go to the planetarium and we watched movies on the 360-degree screen. They would play entire shows about galaxies I’d never heard of or even considered so it definitely opened up my perspective. I enjoy opportunities like that. It just needed a class for the science requirement, but at the same time, I learned stuff I would have never thought about.

Q: Do you believe in aliens?

A: I don’t think I do.

Q: Astronomy didn’t sway you?

A: Well I guess they emphasized that because there were so many galaxies in space that life out there had to exist. But I think I’m going to just focus on earth for now.

Q: What do you want to do after graduating?

A: I’m thinking about physical therapy school, which would be another three years of college. I want to be a physical therapist for a major sports corporation, it doesn’t matter what sport to me right now. I just want to be a part of something big and be able to know that I was person to help a player heal or stay healthy to perform at a high level. I just love that because I was impacted so much by my own physical therapists in the past.

Q: Do you think your extracurricular activities will help you reach your career goals?

A: Yes and I think the biggest part of that is communication. Like I said, I wasn’t really talkative my first-year. Being involved, you have to be able to talk to people. I’ve had to speak in front of big crowds, speak under pressure and on the spot. That’s the biggest thing that I’ve always wanted to work on, and my extracurriculars pushed me in that direction.

Q: How have you developed close friends at Guilford?

A: Just being a part of everything that Guilford has to offer helps you meet people that you thought you would have never met before. So that’s what I like about Guilford: diversity. At every corner you turn, you meet someone new and by the end of senior year, you almost know everyone on campus. I really like that nature about Guilford.