Frederick Embraces her Passions, Goals as They Arise
Senior on path to graduate with perfect 4.0 GPA
Mike Brohard
Christopher Woodard fully expects it to happen.
The topic came up in conversation one day with Jennae Frederick, and often when these types of scenarios are thrown out, you are tempted to nod your head, say sure and leave it alone.
Just not when it comes to Frederick.
“Some of this is half joking, but it’s just her dreams about the future. She’s one of those kids who it’s not about getting this job and having the white-picket fence and being set up for the future,” Woodard said. “She’s looking for adventure and things that speak to her heart.
“We always joke, I can’t wait until you roll into town with your VW wagon with a garden growing on top of it and converted on the inside. She’s one of those people who are passionate about climate change and social justice.”
Frederick is about living life. To her, it requires participation, not observation. She is soft spoken, sure, but when she speaks, it is with feeling. She wants to be involved. She wants to affect change, in a positive way.
She wants to see the world and experience it all. She not just excited about the places she knows she wants to see, but the spots in between she doesn’t know about quite yet.
“That’s kinda my plan right now. Nothing glamorous,” Frederick said. “I’m looking for a van or a school bus to convert and travel for a little bit and just see what’s out there, see other places. I love the Pacific Coast. I want to explore the Pacific Northwest, maybe make it into Canada, and then drive down the Pacific, through California and maybe even into Mexico. That will be cool.”
Plans come and go, and Frederick is all about seizing on to those which pique her interest. She didn’t come to Colorado State with a firm idea in mind of what she wanted to study, but she is a semester away from leaving with a double major in International Studies and Spanish, accomplishing both so far with a spotless 4.0 GPA.
She has been on the Dean’s List every semester, has been Academic All-Mountain West and a Mountain West Scholar-Athlete every season, and she earned the prestigious recognition of At-Large Academic All-District 7 honors from CoSIDA as a junior.
It didn’t all just happen, but it has fallen into place because, eventually, something is going excite her.
“I changed my major I think five or six times my freshman year. I came in as interior design, then journalism, HDFS and then international studies,” she said. “I had initially been interested in international studies. I have always been interested in development and cultures and international relations. I found those classes to be just the most intriguing and interesting for me.
“There was a cultural anthropology class, and it was one of my favorite classes I’ve ever taken. We talked a lot about indigenous cultures and development and the impact of globalization on indigenous cultures. That really got me passionate about development work and sustainable development work, global issues that are impacting small communities.”
She was able to see it up close, too, as a member of the Green and Global group which visited EARTH University in Costa Rica. She witnessed how food is grown, and how underprivileged countries and populations can use sustainable foundations for production and economic growth without affecting the environment.
People always draw her interest, and the culture there and the places she has studied, continually fascinate her.
Dr. Maria del Mar Lopez-Cabrales, a professor of Spanish and Latin American Literatures, mentored Frederick for her honors thesis, which became a magazine titled, “Visionary.” Frederick interviewed five women in the Fort Collins community who live their live with vision and purpose.
Lopez-Cabrales said one of the key aspects of Frederick is she always goes beyond the minimum of what is required. For example, one of the subjects of the magazine is bilingual. While Frederick conducted the interviews in English, she translated the story to include it in both Spanish and English for the thesis.
Frederick’s heart for people has also struck her professor, who noted she wrote about women in the Roma community and the ethnic discrimination they endure and who it has increased the main problems of gender violence in the minority community, proclaiming it will only change once their voices are heard and incorporated into the larger feminist movements.
For Lopez-Cabrales, it is hard to separate the greatest attributes Frederick carries as a student-athlete and a person.
“I would say I’m impressed with both,” she said. “She’s a remarkable and outstanding student, ultra-responsible and always there. I also love the person. When everything started with the pandemic, she was always there. Even the topic of her honor thesis tells you how driven she is by helping others. It’s amazing she can be inspired by other women who inspire people. As a person, I think she’s incredible.”
The idea from the thesis came in the most normal of places – the shower. The trigger happened during the summer, as she watched with far more than curiosity and listened with an open heart and mind. During a Black Lives Matter rally she attended, a CSU professor spoke on how women are being overlooked in the conversations and the changes they can drive.
“This summer impacted me a lot. I brought it down to a very individual focus or perspective, a lot of introspection on my role within the systems, especially on our campus and on my team and within the athletic department,” Frederick said. “It was recognizing how these things play out on a smaller scale within that.”
Education was always stressed in her home. Her father, Nolan, is a teacher at Highlands Ranch High School, and she said her parents made sacrifices so she and her siblings – she’s in the middle of seven children, five girls and on boy -- could go to quality schools. But perfection was never expected, not by them, and not by her.
Coming out of college with a 4.0 GPA was never a thought. But, since she’s come this far, it is now.
“I think the goal was to apply myself and put 110 percent effort in and take advantage of my education,” she said.
This summer impacted me a lot. I brought it down to a very individual focus or perspective, a lot of introspection on my role within the systems, especially on our campus and on my team and within the athletic department. It was recognizing how these things play out on a smaller scale within that.Jennae Frederick
She lives with five other roommates, among them teammates Olivia Chatman and Skylar Williams. She is book smart, to be sure, but Chatman said she is also street smart in the way she cares about the world around her.
Study time can be varied, too. Sometimes it is in a group in the living room; other times she needs quiet to write papers. Watching it happen has been remarkable to Chatman.
“She’s always writing papers. Like all the time,” Chatman said. “She is just so focused. I personally struggle with staying focused and sitting down and grinding out a paper, and she’s just super efficient. She plans really well, is organized … She’s just ready for it.
“I’m absolutely amazed. Especially with athletics, too. You have so little time, and just the fact she shows up and is succeeding in literally everything. I mean, it’s one thing to have a 4.0 in a semester, but over eight semesters, that’s hard. No matter what your degree is, there’s always going to be that one class where, ‘If I get a B in this, I’ll be fine.’ It’s just crazy. With my own college experience, I underestimated what it was going to be like.”
Frederick is competitive in both arenas, with herself most of all. But succeeding in each takes a different tact for her, personally. Academically, it is always about furthering her degree. But in swimming, there is a fire which comes from racing.
One which was nearly extinguished as a sophomore. At that point, she went from a distance swimmer to more of a sprinter, and Chatman believes that had a major impact. Frederick said another key component was finding the joy once again in the sport, and as her career is coming to a close, she loves going to practice and it’s having an impact in her performance, having won a race in each of the first two meets.
“She struggled early in her career with the desire of even wanting to continue, and there was a point where maybe I thought she’d step away,” Woodard said. “Since she come back into it, she seems to have been able to now reconcile the difficult parts of the sport that she doesn’t like and let it roll of her back and still be engaged and happy training. That was the biggest thing.
“As far as execution in a race, I think she’s just gained more confidence that, hey, I can take races out. It’s going to hurt at the end, it’s not necessarily my forte, but I can take races out and I can hold on and beat people.”
Good thing for the Rams she found the fun again, because she’s become a seven-time Mountain West placer, scoring in three individual events last year. Four times those points have come in a butterfly event, three of them in individual medleys, putting her versatility on display.
Frederick will not ease out of her senior year, not academically, not in the pool. After that, she’s not sure what the future will hold exactly.
The ideal world would include a job where she could be involved in sustainable development, especially if dealing with economically challenged populations, and doing so in a way that doesn’t impact the environment in a negative way. It could be a government job. It could be work with a non-profit. As long as it involves helping people and communities, she’s interested.
But for now, she’s serious about taking a trip in a converted van or bus, providing her transportation and living quarters all in one. She wants to see the world for all it has to offer.
“That’s what she wants to do,” Chatman said. “I haven’t gone with her to see any vans, but I know she’s seen a few and she’s actively looking for them. That’s something she’s wanted to do her whole life is live in a van, which I think is so funny, because I have never once had that desire. It’s just so typical. I would expect nothing less from her.”
Her tennis-playing roommates, Emma Corwin and Emily Luetschwager, hope they’ll get invited to join her for stretches. They are all in.
Not Chatman, however. Not even for a short drive.
“I don’t know if I’d travel with her. I might meet her somewhere,” she said. “Maybe a short section, but I would rather if she says, I’ll be in Malibu, I’ll be, ‘OK, I’ll come hang out with you for a little bit.’ Yeah, that’s never been my desire.”
Woodard, he’ll want to taste the rooftop tomatoes. He’s all about his swimmers chasing their goals, in and out of the Moby Pool.
And when the day comes and a horn honks outside, he’ll be anxious to hear her stories.