Looking at her watch, Sarah Putney was shaking. She knew the answer to her dream since sophomore year was waiting for her, all she had to do was come home and look online. The past two days, all of her thoughts had been centered around one thing: her application to Duke.
Everything she had done, all the grades and the AP exams and the sleep deprivation from late nights of studying had led to this.
“I read the first sentence and it started with congratulations, and I just stopped and breathed for a second,” Putney said.
Putney had received an email earlier that morning that explained the number of engineers that had been accepted on early decision, only 180 people had been accepted out of 3000, and she was one of them.
She and her family rejoicing, Putney went to bed that night with a sense of relief.
The next morning, the Captain of the swim team wore a Duke sweatshirt to practice, and was tackled by hugs.
Though she’s had a passion for Duke since sophomore year, something else has been a part of her life for much longer: swimming.
Putney remembers waking up before the sun every morning and jumping into the frigid waters of the pool with her teammates. In fact, this is second nature.
At the age of three, Putney’s mother began her at a small pool, with the intention of her gaining basic water safety skills. But soon, Putney began rising through the ranks, learning strokes and ultimately finding her passion.
“I had my stint with softball and soccer and martial arts, but swimming was really the one thing that was constant,” she said.
Putney started swimming competitively in the sixth grade. To her, it just made sense that she would swim throughout highschool.
“Beginning swim team freshman year, I was really shy,” said Putney. “I don’t even think I learned the names of the seniors on the team until half way through the year.”
Four years later, she is approaching the end of her competitive swimming career, and is realizing that she is about to dive into a whole new pool of other biomedical engineers.
“At Duke… Swimming won’t play as big a role in my life anymore, that’s going to be a big change for me,” Putney said.
While this change may be a difficult one, Putney is looking toward her future at Duke and is thinking of new goals for herself that will help doctors detect cancer cells before they reach stage 1.
“I still can’t believe it sometimes,” Putney said. “I have my own duke email now and a Duke class of 2020 sticker on my car, I just love it.”
Sarah Putney has loved swimming throughout her life, but if trading her passion is what it takes to save thousands of lives and do something greater than herself, she is willing to make that sacrifice.
