Hudepohl Finds Right Fit at Carnegie Mellon

When Jackie Hudepohl, a women's basketball transfer student-athlete from Division I Colgate University, arrived on campus in 2014, Carnegie Mellon University knew it was getting a great basketball player. What the university quickly found out was that it got a model student too. As Jackie impressed coaches and teammates in preseason workouts, she also made a name for herself in her classes.

Majoring in mathematical sciences, Jackie loves computer science research and software development. "I like how independent software development allows me to mesh technical knowledge with a sense of creativity," Jackie says, proving that she is the ultimate Carnegie Mellon student. This past summer she worked in a computer science research lab at Washington University in St. Louis. She worked on the Named Data Networking Project, which aims to develop a new Internet architecture that will improve upon the current method of IP. "I know they're a big rival school, but I had a great time and learned a lot. My experience over the summer really opened my eyes to what high-level research is like and the real world impact it can have," Jackie says.

Jackie also competes in hackathons in her spare time, including one recently in Philadelphia. A hackathon is a daylong contest in which computer programmers and others involved in software development engage in intense collabora tion on software projects. Typically teams stay up all night in order to complete their project. In Philadelphia, Jackie and her team moved fast enough that they were even able to catch a Beyoncé concert that same evening- an unheard of happening at a hackathon!

Jackie is impressive enough as a student and a researcher, but she's managed to accomplish all of these things while still being a leader for the CMU women's basketball team. As a sophomore Jackie appeared in five games, starting each of them. She averaged 12.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 4.0 assists as a guard before suffering an ACL tear that prematurely ended her season. The highlight of her shortened season was a 17-point, 15-rebound, seven-assist outburst against Allegheny College.

After coming to a new university, only playing in five games, and having a season-ending injury, one might expect that Jackie would have given up. On the contrary, she attacked her rehab so aggressively that she inspired her teammates and was voted a captain for the 2015-2016 season. Jackie says, "After missing the majority of last season with a torn ACL, I can't wait to be back on the floor with my teammates. Basketball-wise, I think we have all the pieces to put together something special. It's going to take a lot of work and everybody staying healthy, but I really believe this is our year."

Jackie is a phenomenal representative of the CMU women's basketball team. She's a role model off the court, a leader on the court, and a wonderful teammate. "I'm beyond grateful to have the teammates that I do," she says, "They were an enormous support during my rehab, and in addition to being great basketball players, they're all just really good people."