April 4, 2012
Amanda Vedros grew up in Chesapeake, Va., and began her rowing career in middle school. However, rowing isn’t her only talent. She took part in her local 4H club for nine years. Read on to find out more about her past, present and future as a Miami Hurricane.
When I was in middle school I tried a summer rowing program hosted by our rival high school. I liked it, so when I entered eighth grade I signed up for a novice training camp. They let us do a two-week-long tryout to decide if we wanted to join the team in high school.
Rowing has given me the opportunity to go to school here. If it wasn’t for rowing, I would have gone to school somewhere closer to home. It has also taught me time management. Before rowing I had so much time to do everything, and now I have to figure out when I can get everything done.
To me, the U means pride and family. This is a really close-knit school and athletic community. Even though it’s big, it doesn’t feel that way.
Our team is diverse. There are a lot of different personalities, and everyone has something unique that she adds to the team.
I would like to place in the top three at the ACC Championships. Last year we placed fourth, so we were really close. I’d also like to finish strong at our last race of the season.
My dream job is what I plan to be when I graduate: an orthodontist or an oral surgeon.
The person I look up to the most is my mom. She can relate to the stuff I’m doing, because she ran cross country. If I’m having a hard time or am frustrated, she can help me out. I look up to my dad, too.
My mom was in the local 4H club growing up, because her dad helped start it. She told me about it one day when I was nine, and we went to the little county fair in our area where the club was located. I thought it was really cool and I wanted to try it. I kept doing 4H until I was 18.
You can do different things within 4H, and a lot of people do the horse shows. The one I was in was livestock club. I was in another group called Junior Stockman where I would go to competitions and tell what type of livestock feed was in jars, know the breeds of all the different animals, and be able to place them in order from best to worst.
Because of 4H I raised sheep and cattle, and I had to know all the information about them. I started to breed the sheep, and at one point I had about 15. My dad told me I had to cut down on the sheep. Taking care of the animals was one of the things that got me into medicine. I liked giving shots and selecting different traits and characteristics to show at competitions.