For Hope Carrell, baton twirling was not just a passing phase of girlhood. She has been competing in baton twirling since age three, and today she is the feature twirler in UGA’s Redcoat Marching Band. In July 2005, she competed at the National Baton Twirling Championships held at Notre Dame University. She captured her nineteenth national title, winning the national Two Baton Championship. This qualified her to represent the U.S.A. at the World Championships, which is held every three years and is the equivalent of the Olympics for baton twirlers. Carrell qualified for her first Worlds held in Italy when she was ten years old and has qualified for each subsequent Worlds in England, France, and in April 2006, Holland. Having already won two gold medals and one silver medal at the previous Worlds, she won another silver medal for the U.S.A. this year. She is pursuing her bachelor’s and master’s degrees simultaneously and plans to graduate in May 2007 after four years of study at UGA. She will become a Certified Public Accountant for a large firm after graduation.
Hometown:
Marion, Illinois
High School:
Marion High School
Degree objective:
Master of Accountancy and Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting
Expected graduation:
May 2007
University highlights, achievements, awards and scholarships:
I earned the Ramsey Honors Scholarship, Courts International Scholarship, Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship, Elks National Foundation Scholarship, and Feature Twirler Scholarship. I am a UGA Presidential Scholar and am in the UGA Honors Program. As mentioned before, I am the Redcoat Marching Band feature twirler. I am an alumna and former treasurer of Phi Sigma Pi, a national co-ed honor fraternity, as well as a member of Beta Alpha Psi, an accounting honors fraternity.
Current Employment:
I work at Baxter Street Bookstore as a note-taker for their student notes subsidiary. I am required to attend every session for my assigned class, then transfer all relevant test material from class meetings to Baxter’s computers so they can sell the material to students. In addition, I am a teaching assistant for ACCT 2102, and I teach baton twirling private lessons.
I chose to attend UGA because…
…I was recruited during my junior year of high school to be the feature twirler for the Redcoat Marching Band. Furthermore, I received the Ramsey Honors Scholarship, which pays for about 75 percent of my total cost of attendance.
My favorite things to do on campus are…
…play frisbee at the intramural fields, play intramural volleyball, and play pretty much any other sports at the Ramsey Center.
When I have free time, I like…
…to play cards and board games, spend time with my friends and fiancé, and watch movies.
The craziest thing I’ve done is…
…travel to Tokyo with one other friend while I was on study abroad trip to Japan. Neither one of us spoke any Japanese nor did we have a translator. We somehow managed to get on the right 8 hour overnight bus there and back. In addition, we toured eight of the nine regions in Tokyo over a period of three days, mastering the subway system. It was quite an experience to wander around a foreign country where you cannot even begin to make sense of the language.
My favorite place to study is…
…my bedroom because it is quiet, and my computer is there. I frequently use my computer for research.
My favorite professor is…
…Dan Smith because he is not only concerned about his students learning the material for the class, but he also helps us to use the course material to better ourselves outside the classroom—like in preparation for the C.P.A. exam after graduation!
If I knew I could not fail, I would…
…be a professional athlete because I love sports. My competitive drive always pushes me to do my best and hopefully win in the end. Due to some injuries, I have been unable to do anything of the sort. However, if I could not fail and be healthy all the time, I would find great joy in the professional athletic realm.
After graduation, I plan to…
…pass all four parts of the C.P.A. exam during the summer before starting work in the early fall for Deloitte, one of the “big four” accounting firms. After about five years, I will decide whether to stay and work up to partner or to switch to industry accounting with an international corporation and work up to becoming a corporate financial officer.
The one UGA experience I will always remember will be…
…my first football game and twirling performance at halftime in front of over 90,000 screaming fans. This happened during my senior year of high school when the band director flew me down to UGA for a guest performance as UGA’s next feature twirler.