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����ֱ�� junior swimmer Gaby Antonini knows that hard work pays off: For the ninth-consecutive year, .

As Antonini celebrates this major accomplishment with her team, the backstroker from Florida says time spent with her teammates — both in and out of the pool — has been the highlight of her ����ֱ�� experience.

“When you’re a student-athlete, you’re fortunate in that your team comes with built-in friends. Since my official visit, everyone on the team has been super welcoming,” Antonini says.

Having friends to “suffer through” the challenging parts of being a student-athlete together, Antonini says, has been key to helping her succeed at ����ֱ��.

The discipline she’s learned from over 17 years of swimming has also been instrumental in enabling her to juggle a demanding sport and excel in the classroom.

On a typical day during swim season, Antonini wakes up at 5:20 a.m. for 6 a.m. practice. She swims from 6-7:30 a.m., attends classes and then is back at practice from 2:15-4:15 p.m.. After that, it’s off to do homework and study with her teammates.

Antonini is a psychology and business double major, and she is currently in the process of applying for the . Daniels Distinction recognizes high-performing, truly distinctive undergraduate business students.

Antonini says that while she’s still refining her thesis topic, she’d like to explore the difference between how blue-collar workers in the United States are treated based on whether they are white or Latin American.

A first-generation American whose parents hail from Venezuela, Antonini says her ����ֱ�� experience almost didn’t happen at all.

Although she received scholarships and financial aid, Antonini says the initial offer just wasn’t enough to make attending ����ֱ�� financially feasible.

She says she was coming to terms with not being able to attend her first-choice school when someone from ����ֱ�� called to offer her another scholarship. That offer allowed her to say “yes” to ����ֱ��.

“I wouldn’t be here without scholarships,” she says. “Donors make ����ֱ�� possible for so many students.”

To learn about how your gift in support of scholarships can make a difference in the lives of students like Gaby, contact ScholarshipGiving@����ֱ��.edu.