Scholar-athlete balances multiple sports, aspirations in bio technology
Dec 10, 2018, 5:32 PM | Updated: 5:33 pm
(Photo courtesy of Alethea Rodriguez)
PHOENIX — Canyon Del Oro high school senior Dominick Rodriguez took the term scholar-athlete to heart this past summer.
On top of having a 4.0 GPA, Dominick is a year-round athlete participating in football, wrestling and track and field.
That complicated things when Dominick went to Harvard University to participate in the Harvard Summer Scholar program, earning eight college credits.
While Dominick already had limited time studying for intro to psychology and principles and techniques in molecular biology, he was still concerned about arriving back in Arizona in shape for the start of his senior year athletically.
To avoid that issue, he reached out to Harvard’s strength and conditioning coach about staying in the right shape for the seven weeks he was away.
The coach got back to him and worked with Dominick for 12 hours a week, leaving the senior with no worries about missing the Dorados’ summer workouts.
Football is an important part of Dominick’s life and has been for seven years.
“I like the team-bonding and camaraderie,” he said.
He’s also been wrestling for over five years, a sport he gains life lessons from.
“It’s just you and your opponent on the mat just wrestling it out and it’s pretty nice because it teaches you discipline about your weight,” Dominick said.
Dominick’s biggest passion, though, might be in molecular biology, hence him stepping away from the team for a great opportunity to learn more.
The lab-based class had independent research projects, something Dominick has even done at home with algae to see if it could be used a biofertilizer.
Dominick has already been accepted to Montana State University and Northern Arizona State University and is aspiring to attend Stanford University.
Dominick has three other siblings, and for his mom Alethea, his accomplishments are acknowledged but she’s more thankful that he’s on-task than anything.
“He comes home, showers and is right there doing his homework, religiously,” his mother said, joking that he’s considered “the favorite” of the siblings.
“He’s determined and knows what he wants and goes after it.”
With that, though, comes higher standards.
“I’ll check his grades and [be like], ‘you have a B?!'” she said. “He can’t fail because he never has so he has that added pressure and I’m reminded definitely by the other brothers not to do that to him but you have such high expectations for him because he’s set the bar so high that you just don’t want him to go any lower.”
Dominick, though, has reached that level and will continue to keep his goals lofty in his next stage.
As you can imagine, with the year-round scholar-athlete schedule he owned this year, he’s prepared for the lifestyle change coming his way.
“I’m ready for college,” he said.