Oswego East Student-Athlete of the Week-Jensen Coonradt

By first meeting sophomore Jensen Coonradt, it is obvious she has an infectious and bright personality, one in which people seemingly gravitate. What is not so obvious is how accomplished this young woman is as only a sophomore. With a resume complete enough at this point that most colleges would dream of having her as a student, it is clear she has little intention of resting on her laurels. Whether she is competing for the varsity as a badminton player or heading up her Robotics team at the World Championships, Jensen continues to attack each day with enthusiasm and a strong desire to compete, which is why she is this week's Oswego East student-athlete of the week.

Jensen, self-admittedly, is a hyper-competitive person. "I started playing badminton during middle school, and when our teacher decided to have a tournament with a prize of no longer having to do warm-ups, me and my friends became competitive," says Jensen.

Jensen's analytical mind helps her enjoy the high level of skill it takes to execute the different types of shots needed to succeed and the strategy it takes to defeat her opponents. "As a freshman last season, I learned a lot about gameplay and strategy," says Jensen. She goes on to say, "I enjoy that Badminton is not pure athleticism. A lot of what it takes to succeed is mental and finding out what your opponent can't do well. After the first of three sets, you need to change your strategy to use that against them and take them down."

Despite being a sophomore in only her first year on the varsity team, head coach Craig Morris understands just how special an athlete Jensen is as a leader and player. "Jensen's unwavering enthusiasm is a tremendous attribute as she is always willing to practice and looking to improve," says Craig. He adds, "She has a great personality and her positive attitude rubs off on the rest of the team. She is always looking to challenge someone to help improve her game and ranking."

It is Jensen's accomplishments in addition to the badminton team that sets her apart from her classmates. Having earned a 4.7-grade point average enrolling in incredibly challenging courses such as AP Calculus BC, AP Physics 1, and AP US Government/Politics is enough to earn her a distinction at the top of her class. However, Jensen has already made impacts in the world of STEM that have real-world applications, something some adults in the field struggle to accomplish.

Laurel and Robert Coonradt, Jensen's parents, have always encouraged their daughter to set her sights as high as possible. "Jensen has the drive to compete in all areas of her life," says Laurel and Robert. They add, "She competes as a student to learn and excel, as an innovator in national competitions on a robotics team, and competes as an athlete."

Jensen was introduced to Lego Robotics class as a student at Wheatlands Elementary School. For the past seven years, Jensen has competed on several Robotics teams, with this past year being part of the Turbo Charged FTC Robotics Team which won the state competition this year and will compete in the World Championship in Houston, Texas. Jensen's various organizations through which she has competed and the teams she has competed on have allowed her to travel to Doha, Qatar, and Beijing, China.

Engineering and programming have always been a passion of Jensen's. She has combined her competitive drive, intellect, and eagerness to make a positive impact in the world, as well as her STEM talent, by working with others to innovate and design projects to help the environment and the visually impaired.

In 8th grade, Jensen became inspired by her science teacher, Amy Truemper, to compete in the Lexus Eco environmental competition with a group of friends. They developed an interactive recycle bin that pushed local restaurants to recycle and pause before using straws. This competition won their school an $8,000 grant for the science department.

While the pandemic forced us all to adapt our life and stay inside, Jensen used this time to start a non-profit called Aquabotics. She was able to build a robot that helps clean polluted ponds and an electronic water monitoring system. This project earned her grants of $2,000 and $500, allowing Jensen to recruit friends to help clean local ponds and plant riparian zone plants to protect biodiversity.

As a freshman at East, with the help of East Honor Intro to Engineering and Design teacher Gina Korczak, Jensen recruited a team to create a project for the 2020-2021 Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition in which they wanted to help visually impaired children. The team was able to use STEM principles to design a backpack they called the Viz Whiz that helped the visually impaired interact with the world around them. The team's design not only won the competition but also secured a $65,000 grant for the Oswego East STEM department, money used to help transform the engineering labs at East into maker spaces for students. A video of their project can be viewed here.

Gina is proud of both Jensen's accomplishments and the entire team's. Gina says, "As their teacher and competition sponsor, I am so in awe and proud of the creativity, innovation, and compassion Jensen and her teammates have shown as they strive to design products to help community members in need by using their knowledge and skills in STEM."

If those accomplishments were not enough, Jensen also competed this year as a member of the Business Professionals of Americans team from East at the state tournament. She was able to advance in both of her python coding events, where her computer animation team made a 3D animation, which won first place. A video of that project can be viewed here.

Jensen serves as the Vice-President of the school's Rocketry Club, and coach Anthony Holub sees her future in STEM as bright, saying, "Jensen is an incredible contributor and leader for our rocket team." He adds, "She is dedicated to finding optimal solutions, provides great guidance to our aspiring aerospace students, and has the mindset and drive to make extraordinary contributions to whatever engineering field she ultimately decides to pursue."

Despite all of her accomplishments, Jensen finds time to not only compete in Badminton, but is also a member of the Key Club, Mu Alpha Theta, Best Buddies, the Ecology Club, Yoga Club, School Ambassadors, SCRC student-leader, and is on the board of the Naperville Humane Society as their media person.

Only a sophomore, Jensen has time to figure out exactly where her next step in STEM will take her but has her sights set on the Naval Academy, which boasts one of the best Engineering programs in the country. After which, she would join the military as a Robotics Engineer.

Having accomplished so much at a young age, Jensen continues to remain humble and seek out answers to her community's problems by applying her skills in the STEM field. Jensen also remains excited about the opportunity to attend East each day, and advises future Wolves by saying, "Try to get involved as much as possible, as it helped me meet different students and other people I otherwise would not," says Jensen. She goes on to say, "These activities and sports have helped me academically, and working and competing with other students have helped me make connections and friendships." Hopefully, those connections will help Jensen and her teammates continue to achieve their goals both on the badminton floor and working to make the world around them a better place.