At age 18, many students struggle with confidence in what they want to
be when they grow up. Rebecca Demaree, however, is one of those rare
people who has been both sure of who she wants to be and has pursued it
to its fullest extent.
Demaree decided she wanted to be an engineer in the second grade and
started diving at age 11. She’s carried both endeavors over to Drexel
as a chemical engineering major in Drexel’s Division I diving team.
Juggling these two parts of her life has provided rewards and
challenges.
“There were a lot of times that I would miss class or exams to go to a
meet but was glad I had the opportunity to represent Drexel as an
athlete,” she said. “It was a unique experience to balance athletics
with a challenging degree, but I would do it again if given the
chance.”
Diving gave Demaree the support network she needed to bridge her
affinity for her home in Denver, Colorado with her new life in
Philadelphia — she could see familiar faces at diving meets while at
the same time building connections to new teammates and friends in the
Drexel engineering student-athlete community. She settled into the
Philadelphia lifestyle and fondly remembers participating in local
traditions like sledding down the Art Museum steps after a big
snowstorm.
Rebecca Demaree in diving competition.
Currently, Demaree is finishing up her senior design project with
friends she’s known throughout her college career. Together they’re
working on an economic feasibility study for a factory that
manufactures viral vectors. Viral vectors are the tools which insert
genetic materials into cells and are an essential part of gene therapy.
Though senior design projects can be stressful, Demaree’s group is
“having fun pooling all of our knowledge and various strengths for this
project,” she said. “There are many aspects of our curriculum present
in the design project; it’s a great chance to showcase all of the hard
work.”
After graduation, Demaree is returning to work as a scientist at
Bristol Meyers Squibb, a global pharmaceutical company where she spent
two out of three of her co-ops. At some point after that, she’d like to
pursue a degree in law. Her time at Drexel, she says, was “an
investment in my future.”