Ivy@50

Jaimee Reynolds
When she was on the field or the court, Jaimee Reynolds was usually beating the opposition. But what wasn't evident was that she was learning more about her future doctoral field of study at the same time.

When four-time Cornell lacrosse All-American Jaimee Reynolds was leading the Big Red on the field, she was also acquiring valuable knowledge for her future research.

It's true. Reynolds, who is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Rochester, explains. "My specific project is to look at the 'Significance of Inertia on Reflexive Head Movements.' I've been able to use my experiences from athletics to help me understand my research. Everyday I think about what happens on the lacrosse field or volleyball court and try and figure out how our brain controls our posture and balance during our daily activities."

She has a lot of experience to draw on. At Cornell Reynolds played lacrosse and volleyball, and was 2002 Ivy Player of the Year in lacrosse and three-time first team All-Ivy. She also led Cornell to its only NCAA tournament Final Four appearance in lacrosse, beating seven-time defending champion Maryland to do so. "Our senior year, the Maryland game was the climax of our season," remembers Reynolds.

Reynolds chose Cornell for an unusual mix of reasons. "I wasn't sure what major I would choose, and Cornell had a very fitting motto: 'I would found an Institution where ANY PERSON could find instruction in ANY STUDY,'" she points out. But it was also the food. "I knew that I would have to eat at the school cafeteria for the next four years," Reynolds explains, "and I wanted to make sure that I had some good food to keep me energized during the late night studying."

Even in the midst of pursuing two sports, Reynolds was able to seriously pursue academics. "At Cornell, I was there to learn how to learn," says Reynolds. " I didn't get to fit in every class that I would have wanted to take," but "I was able to pursue research opportunities over the summer and pursue teaching opportunities as a teaching assistant during the school year."

"My professors at Cornell were very supportive," says Reynolds. "They were willing to work with me ahead of time, so that I could fit everything in." This also had a benefit when it came to apply to graduate school. Because of the need to coordinate athletics with classwork "I interacted more with my professors on a personal basis," Reynolds explains. "They were able to learn more about my character, and therefore have an easier time writing recommendation letters."

Reynolds' finds her athletic experiences help her deal with grad school as well. "As an athlete, you are part of a team, you set goals, you work with an authority figure and learn to accept constructive criticism, you learn a skill until you get it right and adapt when necessary."

Hoping to complete her PhD in a year or two, Reynolds plans to stay in academia, preferably a research or teaching position in "the math and sciences." She also finds time to be active in alumni activities. "I'm just two hours away from Ithaca. In October 2006, the lacrosse team will be honored at homecoming, so I'll be there to support the 2006 Ivy League Champs," she says.

"I love everything about Cornell: the people, the places, and the memories," sums up Reynolds. "Whenever I talk about my alma mater, my face lights up with emotion."

"Cornell was like having a second family."

— Stephen Eschenbach

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This website will be hosting a year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of formal Ivy League competition, featuring special articles every weekday through the end of May 2007.

Although some League rivalries predate the Civil War, and the term 'Ivy League' was used in newspapers as early as the mid-1930s, the Ivy League began formally with the Ivy Presidents' agreement of 1954, and the first year of formal competition was 1956-57.

The first formal Ivy League contest -- on Sept. 29, 1956, when the Columbia Lions' football team hosted the Brown Bears at Baker Field in upper Manhattan -- will be commemorated at that same site (now Wien Stadium) with a ceremony on Saturday, September 30, when Columbia hosts the Princeton Tigers.

Since that first contest, more than 75,000 Ivy athletes have played under a unique model of college sports, sharing a remarkably consistent goal: to provide successful athletics as an integral part of the full undergraduate experience -- combining the values and lessons of athletics with those of the classroom and laboratory, the campus and the community -- to produce leaders in every walk of life.

The 50th Celebration is not intended as a formal or complete history of each era, sport or school in the last half century. There's simply too much history to be able do that -- although the online Ivy League Record Book provides a wealth of information about Ivy League standings and All-Ivy teams, national successes in every sport, and individual athletic and academic achievements.

Rather, the Celebration will ask more than 200 former Ivy League athletes to tell the story of Ivy athletics through an almost-daily series of interview-based profiles. Combined with more comprehensive theme-based features (such as the Ivy League's long Olympic history), these profiles will cover every part of these 50 years at all eight schools -- all of the more than 30 Ivy women's and men's championship sports (the broadest collegiate athletic participation in the country) -- and the incredibly diverse backgrounds and careers of Ivy athletes.

Some of these alumni were stars or champions. Others -- like most athletes at every level of competition -- played more anonymously or with only modest team success. In their combined athletic and academic Ivy League experiences, however, each of them found values and habits that led to later success, whether in global arenas or in their own families and neighborhoods.

Special aspects of the Celebration will include:

a preview of each week's stories in the weekly Ivy League email newsletter, which is available free of charge on the left hand side of this page, beneath the menu. Just simply place your email address in that box and select 'GO.'
an earlier (preceding Friday) preview for members of the media, Ivy Sports Information Directors and other Ivy institutional staff (media may sign up by writing to Jane Antis).
archiving of all profiles and features on www.ivy50.com, chronologically as well as by both school and sport.

We welcome reprinting of all stories, with appropriate credit, in public media, and in all institutional media (including websites, weekly bulletins and calendars, game programs, and alumni magazines).

The Ivy League 50th Celebration will be Co-Edited by Ivy League Associate Director Brett Hoover and by Stephen Eschenbach, a long-time contributor to each of the Ivy alumni magazines who also will be Senior Writer. Other contributing writers will include two-time Olympian and 1990 Harvard graduate Meredith Rainey Valmon; former Ivy Public Information Assistants Josi Carlson and E.J. Crawford; current Ivy Public Information Assistants Wes Harris and Bethany Karantonis; and Ivy League Executive Director Jeff Orleans and Associate Director Chuck Yrigoyen.

We hope you will enjoy this special year-long Ivy feature, and we look forward to reading your comments and answering your questions, which can be sent to Hoover.