Former Cross Country Standout Rebecca Buchheit Clayton Made Most of Academic, Athletic Opportunities

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – Rebecca Buchheit Clayton (CIT '97, '98, '02) added another accomplishment to her impressive resume earlier this month, as the former distance standout was named to Carnegie Mellon's All-University Athletic Association (UAA) 25th Anniversary Women's Cross Country Team. Clayton earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in civil engineering from Carnegie Mellon.

"It's a really nice honor. I was definitely surprised," Clayton said. "I think the nicest thing was to look at the website and see the names of my teammates on there."

Clayton was a part of some of the most successful teams in Carnegie Mellon women's cross country history. In 1995, Clayton earned first-team UAA honors and led the Tartans to a conference championship. As a freshman, Clayton was named to the All-UAA second team.

"The thing I was most proud of is that we really were student-athletes in the UAA," Clayton said. "There were lots of people with 4.0s getting engineering degrees and going pre-med. It was a nice thing to compete against people who were students first but still serious about being athletes."

After graduating in 1997, Clayton remained at Carnegie Mellon and earned her master's degree one year later. In 2002, she earned a Ph.D. in civil engineering and remained at the university in a post-doctoral teaching capacity for six months.

"I just really love the people at Carnegie Mellon. Being able to chart my own course was really important to me. I thought CMU was great," Clayton said.

When she left Carnegie Mellon in 2003, the Western Pennsylvania native worked as adjunct faculty at MIT before accepting a consultant position with Ab Initio, a data processing software company based in the Boston area. Clayton and her husband Doug have since relocated to Durham, N.C., but she has remained with Ab Initio.

"We do data processing for companies that have enormous amounts of data. I go to customer sites and help develop applications for them," Clayton said. "I do a lot of online training in India and Pakistan and other places where we don't have offices. It's a really great place to work and reminds me a lot of CMU. The people you find there are super-intelligent and excited about what they do."

Clayton has been a consistent contributor to Carnegie Mellon as an alum and gives back to the university because she is grateful for all of the opportunities she received as a student.

"I feel like so much was given to me. All of the great professors I had gave me so much of their time – excitingly and willingly," Clayton said. "I had scholarships to go to CMU. I hope that by giving back someone else will have a similar opportunity."

Her experiences with the cross country program are some of the fondest of her time at Carnegie Mellon and Clayton still runs trail races when she can.

"If I felt frustrated about my studies or a project, running was a way to get away from the stress and not sit in front of a computer," Clayton said. "Running is something you can do anywhere – all you need is a pair of shoes and a road."

While she looks back at her time at Carnegie Mellon with a big smile, Clayton urges current students to try and enjoy every minute that they can while they are still in school.

"I would say to make the most of it as you can. It was one of the best parts of my life. I made a lot of friends and met my husband. It was a good time," Clayton said.