Throughout the spring semester we are celebrating our senior student-athletes with a Senior Salute series. Today's featured senior is men's lacrosse's Luke Peter. Peter is a biology major.
Q: Why did you choose to attend The College of Wooster?
A: I chose to attend Wooster because I was offered the chance to play two sports in college and receive a great education.
Q: What does being a Fighting Scot student-athlete mean to you?
A: Being a Fighting Scot student-athlete means that you are always pushing yourself, winning the next play, and being a great teammate.
Q: What are some of your favorite memories as a student at The College of Wooster?
A: As a first-year, we beat Colorado College to move to 8-0 on the season, one of the best starts in program history. As a sophomore, we beat Denison University in men's soccer 1-0 at Historic Crew Stadium, spoiling their North Coast Athletic Conference run. As a junior in lacrosse, we travelled to Kenyon College and beat them at home on their senior day clinching the third seed and knocking them out of the NCAC tournament. My favorite memory as a senior so far is starting and actively conducting my own Independent Study research.
Q: What is the best part about being a student-athlete at The College of Wooster?
A: I came to campus and immediately had over 50 friends from both the lacrosse and soccer teams. I can play my favorite sport with my favorite people while taking rigorous courses that challenge me. Professors understand the commitments to classes and sports and are always there ready to help you. The faculty to student ratio of 11 to 1 represents how easy it is to build a relationship with your professors and succeed in the classroom.
Q: What else were you involved with on campus besides your sport?
A: I am a four-year representative with the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC), a two-year Team IMPACT fellow at Wooster, and I have worked in the athletic training room for three years as a student trainer.
Q: Which College of Wooster faculty or staff member has made the greatest impact on you and why?
A: Libby Ladrach has made one of the greatest impacts on me as a student-athlete at the College. She helped me immensely between my sophomore and junior year guiding me towards a more positive mindset in sport leading to my successes on the field in lacrosse.
Q: What other people or resources impacted your Wooster experience in a positive way and how did these people and resources set you up to be successful at Wooster?
A: Coach Andy Zidron is one of the most sincere, down-to-earth, and enthusiastic person or coach I have ever met. No matter what I was going through, Coach Zidron would immediately flip my attitude. He carries a cheerful attitude at all times and really cares about how you are doing in school, sport, and life.
Q: Tell us a bit about your Independent Study project?
A: I am investigating the effects of chronic exposure to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) on the aggressive behavior of betta splendens. NSAIDs are becoming increasingly detected in waterways, including rivers, streams, lakes, source waters, drinking water, and wastewater treatment plants. These effects of pharmaceutical compounds on non-target organisms are not well understood. I am using betta fish in this study because of their novel aggressive behavior to help understand off-target effects of Ibuprofen, a highly detected NSAID. Ibuprofen is a cyclooxygenase inhibitor, and its mechanisms on fish, primarily betta fish, are poorly understood. My research question is how does Ibuprofen effect the aggressive behavior that male betta fish exhibit. I think that Ibuprofen will decrease aggression in betta fish by inhibiting cyclooxygenase activity reducing physiological stress responses that influence aggressive behavior.
Q: Tell us a bit about something cool you did as a student at The College of Wooster?
A: I have been very fortunate to have made the NCAC tournament my sophomore and junior years with the lacrosse team. While we never made it past the semifinal, the experience of playing in a very important postseason tournament game is very important to me. The memories from the NCAC Tournament will be with me forever. Every spring break trip we have had so far has been extremely fun, and while it may suck that we do not get our own spring breaks in college, our team trips have been more fun than I ever thought I could have.
Q: Reflecting back on your time at Wooster, what advice would you give your first-year self?
A: My advice would be that it is very important to set goals, even goals that seem unattainable. Those goals are what will propel you every minute, hour, day, week, month, and year to achieve what you are striving for. I would also say that those goals can be flexible or plastic. They are allowed to change and oftentimes that change is good. If you are happy, have great friends around you, and continue to push yourself academically and athletically, you are in charge of your future. My last bit of advice is that you are meant to be here at Wooster. This place is an extremely special campus that will provide you with the resources you will need for success.
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