Alumnus Graduates from NYU and Enters the Real World
She recently graduated from New York University, moved into a new apartment and is hunting down job possibilities, but 2003 Huntington High School graduate Katie Lee is still the same focused young lady she’s always been – a trait that has paid handsome dividends for her through the years.
Ms. Lee graduated Huntington as one of the top members of her class, compiling a 98 grade point average and scoring 1400 on the SAT. A member of the school’s National Honor Society and French and Mathematics honor societies, the alumnus earned a number of awards and high honors during her four years of high school. She breezed through college with equal results.
“It feels good to be done, but I'm also a little stressed out about figuring out what comes next,” Ms. Lee said. She is trying to land a position with a professional sports team or a sports network. Such jobs are tough to find, but Ms. Lee has always made a habit of focusing on the ball and letting her passion dictate her actions.
At Huntington, Ms. Lee played on the tennis, basketball and softball teams and could generally be called a sports fanatic. Accepted into Holy Cross, Boston College and Bucknell, among others, she decided to attend NYU, which had recruited her to play on its tennis team.
As a high school player, Ms. Lee was All-State in doubles and she duplicated the feat in the college ranks, winning college state tournament singles and doubles championships. This year she helped the team compile a 10-7 mark and was given the program’s MVP Award. She played both singles and doubles as a senior and again did well, enjoying winning streaks of six and five matches, respectively in solo action.
Huntington tennis coach Jamie Fishlow considers Ms. Lee’s college career “very successful” and was pleased she did so well. “She took advantage of her natural ability and worked hard on fitness and conditioning to improve her overall tennis game,” he added.
“My senior year went great, academically and with tennis,” Ms. Lee said. “In the fall our team did fairly well and individually I made it to the semis of the ITA Eastern Regional and then won my flight at the New York States. In the spring we played a lot of tough teams - all of them ranked in the top 20 nationally. Teams like Swarthmore, Middlebury, TCNJ, Emory and the University of Chicago. We played them tough but came up short. I would rather play matches like that over easy wins, though. We finished fourth in our conference tournament - the best we ever had in a while.”
The excitement and sense of accomplishment Ms. Lee feels at graduating from a prestigious school such as NYU is tempered by the understanding it means the probable end of her competitive career as a member of an athletic team.
“It was sad to see my tennis career come to an end but at least I went out on a high note,” Ms. Lee said. Academically, she excelled, earning a spot on the University Athletic Association All-Academic team along with the NYU Student-Athlete Achievement Award for maintaining over a 3.3 grade point average.
“Now it's off to the real world,” Ms. Lee said. “It's a tough process trying to find a job, especially in a small niche market like sports business. Everyone I talk to say that you need that 3-5 years experience to land a job at one of the big name places, so it gets frustrating at times, but I know everything will work out in the end if I just keep at it.”
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