Written by Brad Kirtley
Sports Information Director
Clarksville, TN – Catie Tucker now can concentrate on golf over the next month as her college career winds to a close. The senior certainly knows what she will be doing over the next five years.
Recently, Tucker was accepted into the Experimental Psychology Ph.D. program at the University of Tennessee, becoming the first APSU undergraduate psychology student to gain immediate entrance into a doctoral program in the experimental psychology field. She will serve as a teaching assistant (first year) and then a teacher (last four years) while conducting behavioral neuroscience research.
Kent State and Tennessee brought Tucker onto campus during the winter and she was offered by both. Later the University of Mississippi offered an opportunity to interview, but once she had been offered a position that includes a full-tuition waiver, she knew her next destination. She will be part of a Tennessee behavioral neuroscience laboratory program that includes two other doctoral program students.
“The whole process was so stressful,” Tucker said. “I found out (about Tennessee) right before spring break and it was like the weight of the world was off my shoulders.”
It was no coincidence either Tucker played her season’s best golf during spring break in Florida, although the Chattanooga native attributes it to the weather.
“Haven’t you heard, everyone says I am warm-weather golfer,” said Tucker, who is renown for wearing multiple clothing layers while playing golf in cooler temperatures.
Last spring, Tucker was awarded the Perkins Freeman Governors Club Scholarship for possessing the highest grade-point average (then a 3.964) of a rising senior APSU athlete-she has made one B in four years with the rest of her grades being A’s.
She also received the 2010 Waters Award, based on character, from the APSU chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society.
In addition, she received the Silent Inspiration Award at the Student Organization and Leader Awards ceremony. The honor annually is awarded to an individual to recognize hard work that is put in while “no one is looking.”
Perhaps Tucker’s greatest accomplishment was being awarded a $3,000 grant from the Presidential Research Scholars. The winning research project, “A behavioral Paradigm to Measure Alcohol Addiction in Rats” will conclude in April when she makes her final presentation before the APSU psychology department.
“It was interesting in this (doctoral interview) process that people I talked to were impressed about what I have been able to accomplish (as a psychology major) while also being a student-athlete,” Tucker said.
However, playing such a time-consuming sport also may have benefitted Tucker in her psychology program pursuits. Already a precise manager of time-she has spent her summers directing golf tournaments for the Golf House of Tennessee-it made her even more meticulous with her study time. In addition, her athletic competitiveness perhaps paid off last November.
She presented research project at the 40th Annual Society of Neuroscience in San Diego, CA, Understanding who would be attending the meeting, she invited individuals from respective college neuroscience programs she targeted as potential destinations for her future studies to attend the presentation.
One of those was Matt Cooper, assistant professor for psychology at Tennessee, who now will be Tucker’s mentor during the next five years.
“Catie is a student-athlete who has always put her academics first and has not been shy about her goals,” APSU golf coach Sara Robson said. “From day one she has expected herself to do well in the classroom and excel at everything she does. She is a very determined young woman and will accomplish anything she puts her mind to.
“When she began the process of applying for Doctorate programs she was very nervous and doubtful that she had what it took to be chosen as one of the few in any program. However, through her research and the conferences she presented her findings, Catie’s confidence grew and many programs saw what we have always known-her work ethic and determination to do well and the passion to contribute to her field of study.”
With her immediate future determined, Tucker easily could sit back and perhaps enjoy a little “senioritis.” But that is not part of her DNA. She sometimes thinks back to that one B-it was in a psychology class.
“I was a second semester freshmen…it was OK back then. It was one B…I missed some classes because of golf and I didn’t get the notes from those missed classes,” said Tucker, who is determined to stay focused the rest of the semester.
She also wants to achieve as much success as possible on the golf course with her fellow Lady Govs senior golfers, Chelsea Harris and Ashley Wathen, who also are her roommates and her “friends for life.”
Only then will Tucker, who is engaged to be married in Summer 2012 to Govs baseball player Jon Clinard, be ready to turn the page to the next chapter of her life and career.
“I am really excited about it,” Tucker said. “I’m not sure it really has hit me. I am going to be able to do something I really love (research) while teaching. I think teaching is what I would like to do when this program is completed.”
