Running the Gauntlet from Studio to Stadium: A Conversation with CAED Student Athletes

by Nathan Jackson

Balancing work and life as a student within the College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED) is never easy. Long studio and lab hours, busy schedules, and all the trials and tribulations of college life make for a challenging academic career. This goes doubly so for Lariel Henley and Chase Walter, two Cal Poly Track and Field team members, but that hasn’t stopped them from seeing academic, athletic and personal success.

Lariel is currently finishing up her Bachelor’s of Architectural Engineering (ARCE) with plans to pursue her Master’s in ARCE at Cal Poly in the fall, while Chase is nearing the end of his Master’s in City and Regional Planning (MCRP). Yet these busy academic schedules also coincide with their track and field careers. Lariel, a high jumper, has posted a college best of five feet seven inches at a Santa Barbara meet, as well as placing first in several meets, and received Big West All-Academic honors. Chase, meanwhile, switched from baseball to track his junior year. He broke both the Dempsey Indoor and Cal Poly records for the 600-meter race at 1:16.14 on January 17, which was the fastest in the world at the time and is currently the second-fastest time this year. He is also part of a decorated 4x400-meter relay team and has received Big West All-Academic honors.

Lariel and Chase recently took time out of their busy schedules to discuss how they balance their collegiate lives and find success in all fields.

With a demanding major and sport, how do you maintain balance between academic and athletic life? What's a typical daily schedule?

Lariel Henley: Yeah, it's just making sure that you keep a balance, and you make sure that you spend enough time for all aspects of your life. It obviously is super busy, and my major is very demanding. So, I have to spend a lot of time with school, but I also make sure that I dedicate enough time to my sport, and to social activities, and rest, because when one thing goes out of balance, it kind of can make everything a little bit more difficult. I just think these past couple years, just finding the right balance between everything is what allowed me to continue doing it all four years. 

Chase Walter: The best way has been communication between my professors, coaches, colleagues, and teammates. Telling them "Hey, I'm travelling this weekend, what can I do to get ahead," or talking to classmates about, "Can you screen record [a lecture] or help walk me through something when I'm on the road." 

How do you find time for activities outside your work/athletic life? I.e., carving out time for your own hobbies in a busy schedule.

Lariel: I definitely don't really have any free time, which is okay. On Saturdays I try to not really do anything so I can really see my friends and go outside. Even just like more day-to-day it's really important for athletes to recover and do treatment when necessary. I find that’s a key time because I can socialize in the training room. I just make sure to give myself time to go and do my rehab because I have some shin and nerve injuries or make sure to really stretch after practice. And during the day, I'll try to study with people so that I'm like, you know, doing two things at once.

Chase: It's hard, but not impossible. I have a good group of friends in athletics, so having friends on the team helps a ton. When weightlifting, we're also just hanging out [apart from practicing]. And I take advantage of my free time, free mornings where I take care of laundry or relax or whatever. The CRP program's been good in that, a good work-life balance. Like I said before, it's just all about communication.

Both of you are either actively pursuing Master’s degrees or are going to start next fall. What made you decide to do so, and will you continue to be part of the Track and Field team?

Lariel: This is currently my last year of track because we only have four years of eligibility, but a current NCAA proposal is to give athletes an additional year because of COVID. So, if that were the case, I would have another year. That being said, I honestly am not sure if I would pursue a fifth year, because I do think it would be interesting to finish my master's without having athletics and just like experience a non-athlete college experience. Academically though, It's just a really great program here. It's only one year. A lot of other options would have been at least two years. I really like my professors here, and I really like how I've already started some graduate classes already. And I have been interested in doing a master's regardless, so it just was like a really, really perfect option. And it also helped me pursue some of my minor [in architecture] classes.

Chase: I did my undergrad here in business with a minor in real property development, and I had to take a few CRP classes as part of that. I wanted to get into development after college, and the CRP program here is very well-taught and well-known. Through the program I've started talking to both city governments and private developers about internships for the summer, and getting a master's in CRP will set me up for a future career [in that field]. Regarding athletics, I was eligible for one more year, and while debating whether to go back to track or not I thought "I don't want to look back in 20 years and have that extra year of eligibility wasted.” I wanted to use it, my parents were supportive of it, and I was lucky to run one more year.

Have you ever had to essentially combine your work and athletic lives? Like completing an assignment in the middle of a meet, etc.

Lariel: Ideally like the day before [a meet] I don’t do any schoolwork, so I don't get stressed out. However, nights after a meet when we're in the hotels like you can always catch me in the lobby till like 11PM working on my model or my calculations, or in the airports where I'm always doing homework or studying.

Chase: Recently, we had to travel and for lab we had to do a set of site/map plans. I had to do a screen recording of my presentation on the bus and I just couldn't figure out how to switch between documents and map, but [my professors] thought it was really funny to watch me scramble.

This interview has been edited for clarity.