JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (March 14, 2022) – When young girls look at Maria Emilia Alfaro, she hopes they see not only a talented athlete but a skilled math student.
“If a career in the sciences interests you, don’t be afraid to give it a try,” said
Alfaro, who is set to graduate from East Tennessee State University this spring. “I
wasn’t sure about it either. But then I took my first statistics class and I loved
it.”
Alfaro, a member of the ETSU women’s tennis team, is also a student in the university’s
Mathematics and Statistics Department, carrying an impressive 4.0 GPA.
For years, scholars have lamented the low number of women working in STEM, a common
acronym in higher education that stands for science, technology, engineering and math.
A groundbreaking study at Yale in 2012 found that bias persists for women working
in science, and that faculty subtly but firmly favor male students over women.
“Certainly, I would encourage young women to consider the career options,” said Alfaro.
“The good thing about this career is that there are always a lot of job opportunities.”
Like other student athletes, she endures an intense schedule.
“Being a student athlete is a challenging but amazing experience,” she said. “Class and practice schedules are usually tight and time management is critical. However, loving both my sport and my career is the key that allows me to enjoy every single second of it.”
Most days begin in the weight room. Then, she attends class. Around noon, she eats
lunch and then practices her sport in the afternoon.
“During the weekends we usually have competitions, so we are also traveling a lot,”
she said. “I would describe it as an intense but fantastic experience combining academics
and athletics.”
A native of Argentina and a transfer student from the University of Louisiana at Monroe,
Alfaro hopes to pursue a master’s degree in math with a focus on statistics here at
ETSU. Eventually, she plans to earn a doctorate.
“Getting to both play tennis at the college level and study statistics has been an
amazing experience,” she said.