Mariana Garcia

Classroom

Garcia has excelled in the classroom and brings a 3.71 cumulative grade point average into her senior year. She is a double major in two demanding disciplines – biology and psychology – and is minoring in Spanish with plans on attending medical school after graduating in May 2014. She has been on the Dean’s List in five of her first six semesters and received Gold Stars with a 3.7 or higher GPA on four occasions. She has been a member of the Southern Conference Academic Honor Roll throughout her collegiate career. Garcia has been very active in a number of organizations on campus and is currently serving as president of the Spanish Club after holding the offices of Cultural Officer and Treasure during her junior year. She is also a member of the Diversity Group at The Citadel.

Character

Garcia has succeeded at The Citadel despite facing obstacles that most cadet-student-athletes do not encounter. A native of Bogota, Colombia, her English was limited when she arrived on campus and did not have a military background – a decided advantage when entering the Corps of Cadets. Not only has she overcome those two factors and thrived academically, she has become a true leader among her teammates. That respect was borne out when she was selected a team captain for the 2013 season in a vote by the players and coaching staff. As someone who still does not feel 100 percent comfortable in her second language, Garcia instead is a leader by example. Her head coach says that she has never had a bad practice and is always working hard and encouraging her teammates. She is a “high character” person who always does the right thing at a school where the core values of Honor, Duty and Respect are taken very seriously. And she does all of this while remaining extremely appreciative of the opportunities she has been afforded at The Citadel and in the United States.

Community

Despite the demands of academics, athletics and the corps, Garcia has been active in pursuing internships that are designed to further her interest and experience in the medical profession. As early as the spring of her sophomore year she did an internship at the VA Hospital in Charleston, assisting the nurses in the recovery room while also helping move patients throughout the facility. She took on internships in both the fall and spring of her junior year. In the fall Garcia worked at the Dream Center Clinic in North Charleston, serving as a medical translator, managing medical history of patients and creating and organizing appointments. She performed many of the same duties in the spring at the Medical University of South Carolina. This past summer Garcia did an internship at Retina Consultants and gained experience in scanning patients, prepping them for their appointments with the medical staff and taking and developing pictures for diagnostic purposes. In addition to that work, Garcia has also participated in several community services projects in the Charleston area along with her soccer teammates.

Competition

Over the past four years, Garcia has established herself as one of the top players in the Southern Conference. Through the first seven games of the 2013 season she has scored six goals and ranks first in the conference and tied for 32nd in the nation with an average of 0.86 per game. She is also second in the SoCon in points per game with 1.71. Garcia notched her first career hat trick with three goals in a win over Jacksonville State and then scored in the final minute to create a tie with Canisius. The four-goal week earned her SoCon Player of the Week honors for the first time in her career. She holds The Citadel career record for goals with 37, points with 79 and game-winning goals with 13 and is the active leader in the SoCon in all three categories. As a junior last season she scored 14 goals and ranked 11th in the nation
with an average of .778 goals per game while also tying for 33rd with 1.56 points per game. She was named first team All-Southern Conference for the second time in her career and was honored as The Citadel’s Female Athlete of the Year for all sports. As a sophomore in 2011, Garcia was the team’s MVP and second team all-conference. She debuted with a splash in 2010, earning both SoCon Player and Freshman of the Year honors, only the second player in league history to receive both of those awards in the same season. She became a fixture in the starting lineup immediately upon her arrival on campus and led the team in goals and points that season en route to being named first team all-conference for the first time in her career as well as gaining a spot on the Soccer
America All-Freshman second team.