Originally Posted: May 23, 2018
Congratulations to Adrienn Sánta ‘18 who left SMU with two bachelor’s degrees – one in mechanical engineering from the Lyle School of Engineering and another in math from Dedman College of Humanities and Science.
Championship swimming skills and a certain fearlessness brought Adrienn Sánta from a small town in Hungary to Dallas and SMU, but it’s a little mobile greenhouse called “Evie” that has helped her find her passion.
Adrienn grew up in the 2000-year-old town of Pecs in southwest Hungary, near the border with Croatia. She started swimming at 4, and was doing so competitively by the time she was 8. And she was good – very good – ultimately winning both Hungarian and Croatian national championships.
“Honestly, I didn’t even think about going to college in the United States until almost my last year of high school,” she recalls. But it flipped a mental switch for the young swimmer after a friend on her club swim team was accepted at an American university and showed her how to navigate the application process. She reached out to universities with swimming programs and started getting offers.
SMU Swim Coach Steven Collins impressed her, giving her the facts and the space to choose for herself – no pressure, and no hard sell. And he offered her a full athletic scholarship that was renewed for each of the four years she swam and studied at SMU.
“I’m really grateful for him,” Adrienn said. “This is probably the best thing that has happened to me, and the best decision I could make in my life – so far!” READ MORE