Fourth-year Dance student Valentina Lorente-Garcia’s gymnastics coach calls her a “firecracker.”
“She has a lot of energy; always smiling,” head coach Anastasia Candia says. “She is someone genuinely kind and wants the best for everyone around her. She’s super involved with dancing, and the youth. She can showcase her personality, which elevates her scoring potential. She’s choreographed about 80 percent of our floor routines.”
As a first-year student, Lorente-Garcia was a Women’s College Gymnastics Scholastic All-American, and during her sophomore year she was an Academic All-Big Ten selection, which recognizes athletes with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher—especially impressive given the fact that Lorente-Garcia has only been speaking English for a few years. Lorente-Garcia and her parents came to the United States from Argentina eight years ago to pursue opportunities in her sport. She was 14, and already a standout gymnast: By age 12, she had made the Argentinian National Team, competed in Pan American tournaments and South American club championships.
“My family basically moved to support my dreams,” Lorente-Garcia says.
Her father has volunteered with a church community, and like her mother she enjoys assisting the elderly. She’s also volunteered working with disabled children.
“Working with the disabled is especially rewarding, even if they’re taking a really tiny step,” she Lorente-Garcia says. “When they get in the gym they want to be seen. It’s like, ‘watch me do this, watch me do that.’ They want to feel special, and that’s how you want them to feel.
“I get a deep sense of fulfillment from volunteer work,” Lorente-Garcia says, “because it allows me to give back, to connect with people and really feel grounded.”
Excerpted from an article by Paul Franklin. Read more about Lorente-Garcia on Rutgers Today.
Image credit: Rhea Nall/Rutgers Athletics