May 1, 2009

From Lafayette Sports Information

By Katie Meier, Lafayette Assistant Sports Information Director

Work hard, play hard. It's a typical approach to life, especially for your typical college student. Junior Nick Leigh certainly ascribes to that motto, but not in the way one might think.

There's no question Leigh works hard. As a biology major, most of his days are filled with classes, labs, exams and studying.

But Leigh also finds time to play hard--on the soccer field. Like every student-athlete at Lafayette, Leigh has perfected his time management skills so that he can not only become a standout player on the soccer field, but so that he can also take advantage of every academic opportunity during his four years on College Hill.

Leigh did give some brief though to switching to chemistry, but stuck with biology. His interest in chemistry remained, however, after taking an organic chemistry class with second-year professor Jennifer Rutherford. He was so interested, in fact, that last fall he asked Rutherford if he could work with her on a research project. Undergraduate research is highly encouraged at Lafayette and Rutherford took him up on the offer.

"I initially wanted to start last fall but I broke my leg playing soccer," he said. "So this semester I've really gotten started with the research. I go in on Fridays for three hours and when I have more time, I'll also go in on Mondays and Wednesdays for a few hours."

While the research itself might be complicated, the subject matter is one that should make most people take notice.

For the rest of the article on Lafayette's Nick Leigh, click here.