The University of Aberdeen (Scotland) has one turf tennis court. During her study abroad there Kelsey Hassevoort and (then-boyfriend, now-husband) Alex Dombos ’12 found it and practiced as often as they could until the days grew so short the sun had set by the time classes dismissed.

“We both wanted to stay in shape for our upcoming tennis seasons,” Kelsey says. Darkness didn’t defeat her dedication. Practice moved to the local tennis center even though getting there required a 45-minute commute by foot and multiple buses. That determination explains, in part, Kelsey’s hall-of-fame tennis career.

She was twice named to the All-MIAA first team, and three times recognized as an Intercollegiate Tennis Association Scholar-Athlete. She played number one singles her junior and senior seasons as well as number one doubles her senior season. She earned the MIAA Most Valuable Player award her final season, the same year she won the MIAA Karen Caine Scholar-Athlete Award and was named to the CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District 6 At-Large Team and the CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-American At-Large First Team.

Note the frequency of “academic” and “scholar” in the titles of all those athletic honors. Let’s talk about that. Kelsey made the MIAA Academic Honor Roll all four years. She majored in biology and took a full slate of pre-med courses at K. For her Senior Individualized Project she studied the functional connectivity of the human cerebellum, working in the Neuromotor Behavior Laboratory at the University of Michigan. She earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), focusing her research on the relationships between physical activity, nutrition, and memory performance in children.

So, one might think that tennis and academics were the sole driving factors behind her decision to come to K. In fact, though, the most influential factor may have been the College’s commitment to the liberal arts and the accompanying opportunities for students to explore their interests in a variety of disciplines. One example that stands out to Kelsey: “I loved the ecology courses I took with Professor Binney Girdler, and while I didn’t end up pursuing ecology research as a career, the summer I spent doing field research with her and a team of fellow K students on Beaver Island was a formative experience that set the stage for my future research pursuits.”

“The liberal arts tradition,” she adds, “continues to inform my mindset and approach to my personal and professional endeavors. K taught me to be curious and flexible in applying my talents, and my experience as a student-athlete taught me the importance of balance and making time for physical activity. Connecting with others around fitness has become a real passion of mine.”

After four years working at the University of Illinois’s Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute, Kelsey now serves as a managing director at the Washington, D.C.-based federal grants and government relations consulting firm, McAllister & Quinn. She provides capacity-building, strategic guidance, and grant consulting support services to research universities and other higher education institutions.

The University of Aberdeen (Scotland) has one turf tennis court. During her study abroad there Kelsey Hassevoort and (then-boyfriend, now-husband) Alex Dombos ’12 found it and practiced as often as they could until the days grew so short the sun had set by the time classes dismissed.

“We both wanted to stay in shape for our upcoming tennis seasons,” Kelsey says. Darkness didn’t defeat her dedication. Practice moved to the local tennis center even though getting there required a 45-minute commute by foot and multiple buses. That determination explains, in part, Kelsey’s hall-of-fame tennis career.

She was twice named to the All-MIAA first team, and three times recognized as an Intercollegiate Tennis Association Scholar-Athlete. She played number one singles her junior and senior seasons as well as number one doubles her senior season. She earned the MIAA Most Valuable Player award her final season, the same year she won the MIAA Karen Caine Scholar-Athlete Award and was named to the CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District 6 At-Large Team and the CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-American At-Large First Team.

Note the frequency of “academic” and “scholar” in the titles of all those athletic honors. Let’s talk about that. Kelsey made the MIAA Academic Honor Roll all four years. She majored in biology and took a full slate of pre-med courses at K. For her Senior Individualized Project she studied the functional connectivity of the human cerebellum, working in the Neuromotor Behavior Laboratory at the University of Michigan. She earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), focusing her research on the relationships between physical activity, nutrition, and memory performance in children.

So, one might think that tennis and academics were the sole driving factors behind her decision to come to K. In fact, though, the most influential factor may have been the College’s commitment to the liberal arts and the accompanying opportunities for students to explore their interests in a variety of disciplines. One example that stands out to Kelsey: “I loved the ecology courses I took with Professor Binney Girdler, and while I didn’t end up pursuing ecology research as a career, the summer I spent doing field research with her and a team of fellow K students on Beaver Island was a formative experience that set the stage for my future research pursuits.”

“The liberal arts tradition,” she adds, “continues to inform my mindset and approach to my personal and professional endeavors. K taught me to be curious and flexible in applying my talents, and my experience as a student-athlete taught me the importance of balance and making time for physical activity. Connecting with others around fitness has become a real passion of mine.”

After four years working at the University of Illinois’s Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute, Kelsey now serves as a managing director at the Washington, D.C.-based federal grants and government relations consulting firm, McAllister & Quinn. She provides capacity-building, strategic guidance, and grant consulting support services to research universities and other higher education institutions.