Amanda Craig is an aspiring pharmaceutical researcher and a Division One softball player
Amanda Craig’s average school day leaves little room for down time.
Craig, who graduates this month with a major in biotechnology and minors in psychology and biochemistry, is both an aspiring pharmaceutical researcher and a Division One softball player.
“On a typical day I go to class, work in the lab for two hours, lift weights for an hour, go to practice for three to four hours, and then go home and do homework,” Craig said. “On the weekends we usually play two to three games and do a lot of traveling.”
She feels fortunate to have a professor - Donald Kobayashi - who not only provided her with the opportunity to work on a research project in his plant pathology lab, but also let her work around her softball schedule.
Likewise, her coach, Jay Nelson, understood when the first baseman had to occasionally miss practice for laboratory sessions that can run up to five hours.
The dueling commitments have helped Craig perfect the art of time management.
“That’s the hardest part,” she said. “You have to be really strict with your time to make sure you get everything done.”
Whether she was playing first base, or working in a research lab, Craig made outstanding accomplishments in both activities.
Indeed, the native of Manassas, Va. was named BIG EAST Player of the Week in March, and was named to the Weekly BIG EAST Honor Roll in April.
Meanwhile, Craig made knockout clones for a bacterium in Kobyashi’s genetics lab, where she’s worked for the past year – 10 hours during the week and in the summer full time.
“I was more interested in molecular genetic work than plants,” Craig said. “But I learned a lot of different techniques for research and it ended up being very interesting.”
Craig said Kobayashi was her mentor.
“Dr. Kobayashi helped me transition from softball being my main focus,” Craig said. “He helped me concentrate on how my career and my life will go from here,”
Craig has been playing softball since she was 8. In high school, she was recruited to play for a New Jersey traveling team, which played in more competitive league than teams from her area in Virginia.
She traveled four hours from her hometown to play on the New Jersey team, which had many of their games in Edison. There, she had the opportunity to meet Rutgers coaches, who recruited her to the university on a softball scholarship.
“It is a hard transition when you start college because you practice 20 hours a week and have to balance that with classes,” Craig said. “The Athletic Department does a good job helping freshman with that. They schedule study hall hours and get you tutors. It really helps a lot.”
After graduation Craig will be looking for a job as a bench scientist in a small biotechnology firm in New Jersey or Virginia. She plans to work for a year or two and then hopes to go onto pharmacy school and eventually land a job in pharmaceutical research.