Scholar, athlete....how about both

Paola Vizcaino Suarez, from Metepec, Mexico, amassed a ton of on court recognition while playing for coach Heidi Tate from 2000-2004 (she missed her junior year while studying in France on a High Academic Achievement Scholarship).  I remember being an assistant coach at UC Santa Cruz and hearing about this Whitman player who was tearing up the Northwest.  Among other honors, Paola was a three time first team All conference selection, the Whitman Senior Athlete of the Year (Mignon Borleske Award), and was voted  NWC player of the year in two of her three playing seasons.

I won't even delve into the depths of Paola's academic achievements, which include earning Academic All-District honors and co-founding the student group on campus, Alliance for Workplace Justice. Click here for more of her academic achievements at Whitman.

It is her work at Whitman in this field with Associate Professor of Politics Paul Apostolidis which recently culminated in a book on immigrant labor, "Breaks in the Chain: What Immigrant Workers Can Teach America about Democracy" which was published in August 2010.  You can read about the book here and if you're wondering if Paola has rested on her laurels since graduating from Whitman, the answer is no.

After obtaining a master's in Tourism Planning and Management at the University of Alicante in southeastern Spain, Paola is now enjoying married life in Spain as she expands her tourism consulting business and learns the official language of Galicia (I think this will make 4 languages for Paola!).  Thanks to Paola for sharing and catching up on what she's been doing, it is so fun for me to learn more about our program's history and I hope you enjoy hearing about it as well because I hope to share more stories as I get to know more alums.