It’s Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. and Sara Giovannoni can finally catch her breath. It’s been a busy week for the industrial engineering major from Modena, Italy. A member of the FIU swim team, Giovannoni begins her weekday mornings at the pool with her teammates at 5:45 a.m. The FIU junior is juggling two-a-day workouts and 17 credits this semester, leaving little free time for the 22-year-old.

This self-professed perfectionist wouldn’t have it any other way.

She’s come a long way since learning to swim at the age of 3. Now a member of the Italian National Swim Team, Giovannoni came to FIU less than two years ago. (“My English was terrible,” she says, laughing.) By March of this year, she was on her way to the NCAA Swimming Championships as the first Golden Panther ever to qualify for the prestigious meet. She wound up finishing a respectable 18th in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:14.38, improving upon her previous school record of 2:14.81.

“Sara was phenomenal,” swimming head coach Noemi Zaharia said in an interview after the championships. “She did great, but just her being at the NCAA Championships is a tremendous accomplishment as a sophomore. This is a huge stepping stone for our program.”

FIU is so proud that this ambitious young woman is a member of the Golden Panther family that we’re featuring her in a “Best in Class” ad campaign that’s running in The Miami Herald. The campaign began with a spotlight on this year’s valedictorians who chose to attend FIU. In the coming weeks, we will be expanding the campaign to include FIU faculty and researchers, scholar-athletes, student scholars and alumni.

Here is a video of her interview:

Recently, we met with Giovannoni and asked her a few questions about herself and her future plans.

What I enjoy most about swimming:
The 200 breaststroke is my best event. That was the event I swam in the NCAA Championships. When I’m in the water, I can relax and focus. No worries. It’s just me and the water.

The life of a scholar-athlete:
It’s busy! I’m taking 17 credits this semester and practicing with the swim team twice a day. I’m really stubborn and ambitious, so I put pressure on myself to do well. My GPA was 4.0 until this past summer when I got an A- in one of my classes.

On life in the United States:
Everything was a surprise. The schedule, sharing a dorm room, the classes, learning to speak the language – it was all new. The one thing I loved from the beginning, though, was the weather. My family supports me 100 percent. They hear how happy I am when they phone. They know this was the right decision for me.

My dream:
I don’t know if I’ll be living in Italy or the United States. I’d like to be a good engineer with my own business. I like the options that come with being an industrial engineer. I’d love to swim for Italy in the 2008 Olympics. It will be hard, but we’ll see what happens.

“I love the fact that this is such an international city and university. I enjoy meeting people from different places.”

To view the ad, running September, 17 in the The Miami Herald, please click here to download a PDF file.

You may download Adobe Acrobat Reader from here if needed to view the file.