Florida Tech Panther Scholar-Athlete Spotlight Recognizes Swimmer Miranda Olhasso

Olhasso is majoring in Applied Mathematics

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Being a scholar-athlete at Florida Tech takes an incredible amount of hard work and dedication to excel both in the classroom and on the field. We caught up with Panther women’s swimmer Miranda Olhasso, a sophomore who is majoring in Applied Mathematics, for this edition of Scholar-Athlete Spotlight.

Making the journey to Melbourne from Holland, Pennsylvania, Miranda had multiple second-place finishes this season in the 100 Back and another in the 200 Back.

Following her freshman season of 2022-23, Olhasso was named to the SSC Commissioner’s and Florida Tech Athletic Director’s Honor Roll.

Miranda joined us to talk about what made her choose Florida Tech and how she wants to use her education.

Tell us a little bit about your major, what made you choose it and what do you want to do with it?

I’m an applied mathematics major with an applied field in environmental science, and it wasn’t my original major coming in here, but just helping my friends out with math, I’ve always kind of been good at it. After learning how many opportunities there are through the field, I decided that I think it would be a good idea for my future.

My mom is actually an environmental scientist, so I’ve always kind of grown up around that and going to the bring your kid to work days and stuff like that, so I’ve always been interested in that field as well.

Given how often swimming have to practice, what works for you to budget time for your class work?

I think one thing, for me, is definitely planning far ahead. If I know I have a competition that weekend and I know I have a lot of schoolwork going on, I really try and get most of it done Monday through Wednesday so that I can have that time to focus on my swimming and I don’t have to do both at the same time because it’s pretty much impossible if you try to do it that way.

Is there a teammate or fellow athlete who you’ve become study buddies with?

Yeah, McKenzie [Winder] on the basketball team, she’s a mechanical engineer, I believe, but we have a lot of classes together just since I’ve gotten here actually. We’re both in PD right now, so it’s a really big help to have someone right there with you in the same classes, studying and doing homework together and stuff like that.

What are some things you need to get the most out of study time? Do you prefer to be in a group or by yourself?

I kind of like to do both. Originally, when I first started studying, I liked to do a lot of it on my own, making sure I understand the material. If I have any questions, I jot them down or make a note of them. I do enjoy working with other people, just hearing how someone else can explain the topic makes it easier to understand. Also, explaining a topic to someone else can make the topic solidify in your brain a lot more and get you ready for the test.

How has being a collegiate athlete prepared you for what you’re doing now and are there lessons from the pool that you apply to your studies?

I think time management definitely is one of them. You know you only have a certain amount of time before practice or lunch or something like that. You got to buckle down and get your work done. There’s not a lot of time to dilly dally and hang around.

Also, a big lesson I’ve learned from swimming is taking every challenge, taking every race as a brand new day. If you do bad once, and then you just keep getting hung up on it, you’re gonna continue to perform that way and it’s not going to make you very happy and it’s going to be an endless spiral. But, if you really take every challenge and every race as a new day, you can learn what went right and what went wrong from each race. Then you can implement that the next time so we make sure it doesn’t happen again.

What advice would you give to an athlete coming to Florida Tech that has an interest in Applied Mathematics?

It’s gonna be difficult, every major here is, but if you surround yourself with good people who want the same thing as you whether it be working hard in the pool, outside of the pool, whatever sport you may choose to do, you’ll really find that those people will motivate you and help you to achieve your goals.

CLICK HERE FOR BREVARD COUNTY NEWS

Similar Stories