SOPHIE GARRIGA OF AUSTIN COLLEGE, a freshman on the women’s swimming and diving team, has been selected the SCAC Character Female Student-Athlete of the Week for the period beginning February 13, 2017.
For Garriga, discovering what she wanted to do with her life became inextricably linked to her athletics pursuits in an unusual and frightening way. As a high school student in San Antonio, Garriga was headed home following swim practice when she witnessed a car accident.
The biology major, focusing on pre-med, has since become a member of the Pre-Health Society at Austin College, and beginning this January, she’s been volunteering at Wilson N. Jones Medical Center in Sherman every Sunday. Despite being in the midst of her season – during which she put together an extraordinarily successful first year in the pool, breaking multiple Austin College program records at the recent Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship Meet – Garriga has put in several hours each week at the hospital, often helping out in the emergency room of the facility.
Whether she’s provided company to patients at the hospital or helping the nursing staff care for those patients in any way she can, Garriga continues to volunteer at the hospital and plans to do so for the foreseeable future.
Despite being just a freshman with the ’Roos, Garriga has also already been appointed to the Student Athlete Advisory Committee at Austin College, as well; a role she took on during the fall, when she was still just getting her feet wet as a student-athlete. Over the years, she’s also worked as a volunteer swim assistant back home in San Antonio, helping to teach people from as young as five to the age of 18 improve their swimming skills.
Garriga has also excelled in the classroom at Austin College, boasting a 3.75 grade-point-average in addition to her efforts in the pool and in the community.