Ginger Fernandez '25 Recruiting Profile

The attached video is me, my sophomore year of high school, in our St. Andrew #V8+ team winning the gold medal 🥇 in the 2K at the 2023 USROWING Southeast Regional Championships at Lake Lanier, in Gainesville, Georgia.  You can see our kick in the last 500 meters “making that huge move” in the Southeastern Regional finals to power away from Sarasota and Atlanta Juniors to take the 🥇! That is me, the blonde in the pink headband, rowing bow, and the first to cross the finish line!

Here is a summary of my hardware: 

CLASS OF 2025 USROWING SCHOLASTIC HONOR ROLL FOR EXCELLENCE IN BOTH ACADEMICS AND ROWING.

2024 ST. PATRICK’S DAY SCRIMMAGE, LAKE LANIER, GEORGIA:

🥇VARSITY 3V8+;  

🥈  QUAD;

🏆 TEAM POINTS TROPHY.

2024 ATLANTA ERG SPRINTS, GEORGIA TECH: 

🥇 INDIVIDUAL MEDAL: WOMEN’S U19 LIGHTWEIGHT 2K.

2023: JULY,  HALIFAX REGATTA:

🥈DOUBLE [STROKE];

🥉QUAD; 

🥇V8+;

🏆 TEAM POINTS TROPHY.

2023: USROWING SOUTHEAST REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:

🥇 3V8+ USROWING 2023 SOUTHEAST REGIONAL CHAMPION;

🏆 TEAM POINTS TROPHY.

2023: APRIL SCRIMMAGE, LAKE LANIER OLYMPIC ROWING CENTER: 

🥇 VARSITY 8+ WOMEN (GOLD); 

🥇LIGHTWEIGHT 2X WOMEN [STROKE]; 

🥇 LIGHTWEIGHT 4X WOMEN;

🏆 TEAM POINTS TROPHY.

2022: 🥇ODP USROWING OLYMPIC DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM.

I am a straight-A junior port rower at St. Andrew Rowing Club (“SA”) in Roswell, Georgia with a 1410 SAT (700V 710M) with rigorous honors and AP courses. My class rank is #1.  I stroke port in 2s, 4s, and 8s.  I stroke scull in 2s and 4s. I single scull.   I can row any port position or scull position in the boat.  I can row starboard in a pinch. I love encouraging others, and working with a team.  My sophomore year I moved to a much larger team.

I weigh 120 pounds, am 5’6”, rowed ODP after freshman year. My 2K is 8:04.7 weight adjusted to 6:44.7. I expect to sub-8 this season, which adjusted for my 120 pounds, would be 6:40.  I am also gunning for a higher SAT score.  I love winning 🥇 medals.

I am proud to be an SA rower.  St. Andrew is nationally ranked the Number 6 women’s high school club team in the United States. We practice 4 seasons a year.  I am proud to practice 20 hours per week: rowing, erging, steady state, lifting, running.  It means a lot to be on a winning team of women that is as motivated to win as I am.  My erg times keep improving because I keep getting stronger in sprint races and head races, as well as 2K ergs and 10K ergs.  I hope to be on a similar team in college, or a team that wants to do the hard work to build to being a winning team.  I keep improving and getting stronger as a port sweep and scull rower at St. Andrew (SA) Rowing.

I volunteer remotely, teaching English as a second language to Ukrainian students in Kyiv and Mykolaiv. My volunteer work in English teaching has been extremely rewarding and has improved my presentation skills. Additionally, I volunteer as an SAT Peer Tutor for the College Board, a program developed by Sal Khan for research purposes.  And of course, I tutor my friends!

I have been blessed in my rowing career to have had excellent coaches who have pushed me to develop:  Coach Rick Brown at ODP Olympic Development Program; Olympian and World Record Holder Coach Xeno Muller for ergometer; Coach Jason Berric at St. Andrew; Coach Erin Haworth at St. Andrew. I have a lot of respect for my coaches.  The quality of the coaching I have received, and the endless enthusiasm, and the “you can do it, so let’s get it done!” - have all really encouraged me to show up every day pumped and ready to be better than the day before.  

I am hearing and speech impaired with two IEPs, and as a little girl, I was very shy and had a difficult time in school because my hearing loss had not been diagnosed, even after multiple tests.  I was also sensitive about “talking funny” - - - as so many hearing impaired kids are. I joined dance and sports.  This helped me, both physically and socially.  I was a fast runner and I loved playing outside, so I naturally loved playing sports.  I did ballet, gymnastics, golf, tennis, soccer (I scored a lot of goals), swimming, cross-country, and varsity volleyball.  I was MVP in both cross-country and volleyball the same year.  

I came to rowing the fall of my freshman year, the day after high school varsity volleyball ended (I lettered), because I wanted a more intense athletic challenge.  That day, I rowed a single scull for about an hour and a half before flipping it over and entirely dunking myself into Lake Lanier, and I have never looked back!  A couple weeks later, I was in my first race … 5000 meters in an 8+ at the Hooch!  

Rowing is joy, even on the most frustrating days.  I can see how much I have developed because of the sport, not just in my technique, endurance, and speed, but also in myself as a person:  I know I am tough.  

All that dance, gymnastics, golf, swimming, tennis, volleyball, and cross-country running paid off to make me a better overall athlete and has made me a healthy, disciplined, happy, fast-thinking, resilient, reliable, determined, durable, sprint-distance, as well as long-distance, rower. I am still a little shy, and I still talk a little funny, but I see the value in challenging myself in all things to make myself tougher, stronger, more confident and - - - more joyful.

I am interested in studying Biochemistry, Economics, Marketing, Film, and Diplomacy.  I am especially interested in cross-media, which is the interconnection of media content across many platforms with information and communications technologies.