“Take hold of everything! Enjoy your academic side and definitely your athletic side. Being in college is not time you will ever get back”.

Sydney Barker, a transfer student from the University of Alabama and a native of Roswell, Georgia, has made her mark at UC through academics and athletics. As a midfielder of the women’s soccer team and captain, Sydney has achieved great things in her time here. It is even more commendable that she has done these things on the field on top of being an Aerospace Engineering major in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “It’s a challenge” says Barker, “but you have to make sure you are caught up in all of your classes while still traveling”, and Sydney balances it all very well. She maintains a 3.59 GPA and has been named UC Scholar-Athlete of the Month for September.

Sydney began her college career at the University of Alabama. On their field, she played in eighteen games, starting in nine of those. As a sophomore transferring to UC, the only thing she had to adjust to, was the cold weather, of which Barker is not a big fan. That didn’t stop Barker as she became at home on UC’s soccer field starting in all twenty matches; the first eight on the back line and then transitioning to midfielder halfway through the season. During her second collegiate season, she had eight shots on goal, scored her first two goals, and played a season-high of 105 minutes against Miami of Ohio, not to mention her assist which set-up the game wining goal against Villanova.

In August, Sydney received the honor of captain for the second year by Coach Michelle Salmon along with two other teammates. “The leadership that these three possess is vital to our success this season” said Coach Salmon. When asked about the position of Senior Captain, Baker talked about keeping the team instep on and off the field. “You have to be in control on the field," Baker says when discussing being responsible for the team.  

In high school, Sydney earned eight varsity letters (soccer, volleyball, track, swimming and basketball) and played on a two-time Georgia state champion soccer team and a two-time R3PL Champions club team.

The achievements of a student athlete do not come easily. The hard work and commitment that these students put in takes balance.

“You always have to be organized. You have to be on-top of your athletics, your fitness, and also your academics; studying and talking to your teachers”, says Barker referring to the pride and honor that comes with being a Bearcat student athlete.

Barker knows a Bearcat student athlete’s impact is bigger than just campus wide, “The whole community looks up to you, not just people who are in school.”

In Barker’s rigorous academic program, she has been provided with opportunities to learn and grow in areas other than just the soccer field. Her biggest accomplishment in the Aerospace program had been her project working on a control program for aircraft using mathematical concepts and algorithms collectively referred to as fuzzy logic.  

Fuzzy logic is reasoning with only partial information available to reach the “best decision.” It deals with the assigning of probabilities to all possible solutions to get the optimal outcome. Sydney will be presenting the results of her work at a national conference this coming spring.

Barker received the Tom Byar Scholarship, an award for Aerospace studies. The scholarship facilitated Barker’s decision to transfer to UC, but the desire to attend came from the strength and challenges of the CEAS aerospace engineering program.

Baker feels this program is a good fit based on her love of math and planes, but she also feels that being a part of the growing female population in her college has helped to broaden her horizons.

“I want to focus on airplanes and cars” says Barker, who hopes to work for Boeing or Mercedes Benz when she is finished with schooling, but she does not want to stop at undergraduate work; “I want to get the highest education possible.”

To do so, Barker plans to attend graduate school after she has completed her time in undergrad. In regards to her co-op program Barker said it has “helped me to know what I want to do when I am done playing soccer”.

Baker has plenty of long and short term goals. Baker’s athletic goals include taking the team to the Big East Championship and then continuing to the next level of soccer competition with coaching a possibility following her playing career. Professionally, she hopes to work for a major company or even potentially owning her own company one day.

Personally, Baker wants to give back to the country of Panama, a place that Baker holds close to her heart. Her father was born in Panama and Sydney has family members who live there and are currently working to build the new Panama Canal.