Women's Rowing | 10/8/2015 3:27:00 PM

ROCHESTER, NY - It's just after 5 a.m., and a few dozen brave souls are walking towards the Genesee River exiting the Gosnell Boathouse, chatting excitedly, getting ready to put paddle to water. For one girl in particular, this is the beginning of a long day that will see her wear several different hats.
 
Laura Alderfer (Sellersville, PA/Pennridge ) is a senior biomedical engineering major on the RIT women's crew team. On the water, the two-year team captain overcame her initial lack of experience by leading the RIT varsity eight crew to Liberty League Boat of the Year honors in 2014-15. This season, Alderfer and the Tigers have already impressed, finishing third out of 13 crews at the Head of the Genesee Regatta, and second to Division I Canisius at William Smith's Challenge on the Canal. The Varsity eight boat has won back-to-back Liberty League Crew of the Week honors.
 
Next weekend, Alderfer and the Tigers will attempt to tame one of the most famous rivers in American rowing – the Charles, in Boston, Mass. The Head of the Charles is one of the most prestigious races in college rowing, and some of the best crews in the world – Harvard, Boston University, Northeastern among them – call the winding bends of the Charles River home.
 
"It's no surprise to me that she's our captain," said RIT men's and women's crew head coach Jim Bodenstedt. "What she brings to the team is a balanced nature to how she solves problems. She's a very strong leader; she always goes the extra mile to help her teammates."
 
Away from the water is where things get interesting for Alderfer. Biomedical engineering majors have a wide variety of ways to utilize their studies to begin their career. Alderfer has explored many of those avenues, including sports applications to working with prosthetic limbs and biomaterials, working step-in-step with patients worldwide.
 
What Alderfer has done as a student outside of the classroom would even make 'The Most Interesting Man in the World' guy give a tip of the cap in approval. Start by a nine-week trip to Rwanda in Africa the summer after sophomore year as a co-op, with Engineering World Health (EWH). There, Alderfer got a first hand experience on building medical equipment, stuff such as maternity chairs, patient monitors, and defibrillators. Alderfer and her EWH team built things from scratch out of what seemed to be bits and pieces of material, gaining an appreciation of what it took to complete simple tasks such as a simple checkup in foreign countries.
 
"We really didn't have any parts, so we made things ourselves," said Alderfer. "One time, we needed a metal bracket for a chair, so we took bits of sheet metal and took it to a welder to help us. The guys didn't have any welding gloves and any facemasks, so they were just doing it blind, basically. It wasn't pretty, but we got things done."
 
In another situation, Alderfer had to walk two hours away for a bolt that was needed for a chair. The bolt that they eventually found was too short. Thinking wisely, they extended it by welding a bar onto the piece just to extend it enough to fit the chair.
 
Before arriving at RIT, Alderfer embarked on service trips to help people in need, in places such as Mexico City, Guatemala, and Haiti. This past winter, she returned to Guatemala to fix equipment that will help people in need.  This summer, she went to West Point, Pa., close to her hometown of Sellersville, to intern at American pharmaceutical company Merck, a vastly different environment than her trips abroad.
 
"When I got to Merck, I noticed that everyone there had their PhD," said Alderfer. "The amount of money that is funded for research for one drug is unbelievable, compared to the things we had to do to in Rwanda and Guatemala. On the one hand, I'm spending four hours and a few dollars just to get a 9-volt battery. Here, I was running experiments that cost $2,000 per day."
 
Despite the amount of resources at her disposal, Alderfer felt more comfortable working to help people on the front lines.
 
"You learn so much from service trips," said Alderfer. " You just have to think so creatively to get stuff done, things that I would take for granted here. It was discouraging at times, trying to find and make your own parts. But it was fun and eye-opening."
 
Alderfer brought her experience abroad home, as EWH has expanded with an RIT chapter last year. She was elected as its first president. After graduation, Alderfer, with a grade-point average of 3.51, is leaning towards medical school after talking to surgeons throughout this semester.
 
In addition to her admirable service work, and success on the water, Alderfer serves as a Resident Advisor at the university, a position that she has held for three years. The first year was spent at Sol Heumann Hall, a freshman dormitory, and the past two years have been at Nathaniel Rochester Hall on campus. A Resident Advisor is in charge of a floor full of peers that are just trying to navigate college life. In one incident, Alderfer was doing homework, when she heard giggling outside her door. Ignoring it, she decided to continue working, until the laughing increased, which turned into a mad dash away from the door.
 
With Alderfer's curiosity reaching a fever pitch, she opened the door, to reveal a floor-to-ceiling wall of bubble wrap.
 
"At the end of the day, it's been a good experience," said Alderfer. "First and foremost it gives you the opportunity to have a huge impact on a freshman's experience and provide mentorship or a guiding hand to anyone who needs it. Also, the resident life staff is an amazing group of people who are really fun to work with. Besides that, it's a great opportunity for personal growth and leadership."
 
Alderfer also works at the post office on campus, receiving and sorting out mail to be delivered to residents. She also works as a Teacher's Assistant and a note taker for the National Technical Institute of the Deaf (NTID). With all these responsibilities, Alderfer finds that it's essential to practice solid time management strategies.
 
"If you let it all pile up on you, it sometimes seems overwhelming," said Alderfer. "So I think it's been crucial that I micromanage my weeks. I like to say that I 'triage' it. I have a giant whiteboard, plan what I have to do each week, and just try to take it day by day. I figure out what I have to get done right now, and that way it makes it seem just a little less stressful."
 
Sometimes, certain sacrifices are made, such as loss of sleep due to long nights studying. But Alderfer doesn't complain.
 
"If you're passionate about anything, you'll just make it work," said Alderfer. "I've thought about dropping something, but I like what I do. I make it work."