Health & Exercise Studies | History

HEALTH AND EXERCISE SCIENCE SHAYLA SMART

Katie Fox/Old Gold & Black

MEREDITH PRINCE

Features Editor

Shayla Smart knew she would be attending Wake Forest in her sophomore year of high school, when she committed to play soccer for the Demon Deacons. As an athlete, she was always drawn to the Health and Exercise Science (HES) field, but she knew that she wanted to pursue a future within medicine. Coming to Wake Forest, she believed that majoring in HES would be the best fit for working through all the prerequisites for physician assistant’s (PA) school.

Smart credits much of her success in the HES field to the professors who have helped her through this journey. She believes that her time at Wake Forest would not have been as excellent if it weren’t for the mentors she met through the major.

“The professors within the department are so helpful and useful,” Smart said. “They’re always there with open doors. I got to know all my professors on a really personal level. So, I feel like I wouldn’t have had such a great academic journey and success if it wasn’t for [this major].”

Specifically, Smart recognizes Dr. Ted Eaves as one of her greatest influences throughout her time at Wake Forest. She took three classes with Eaves and noted his Human Gross Anatomy (HES 352) as the most compelling class she has taken.

“Shayla is a very intelligent and driven student who has excelled in several of my classes,” Eaves said. “Her high level of success both academically and athletically validates how hard-working and dedicated she is to everything that she does and demonstrates how much potential there is for Shayla in her personal and professional future.”

Smart’s most memorable experience within the HES department is the cadaver laboratory that was offered through the anatomy class. She highlights the importance of learning about the human body and different muscular and skeletal systems on a deeper level but also doing so with professionalism. “Outside of knowledge about the human body, I also learned about compassion,” Smart said about the cadaver lab.

While Smart has certainly had much success within the HES field, she also has had a significant career on the soccer field. Playing as a forward, Smart made large contributions to her team through goal-scoring. In September 2021, she was named one of the “ACC Women’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Week” after scoring the first hat trick of her collegiate career and the first hat trick for Wake Forest’s women’s soccer team since 2016. Beyond Wake Forest, Smart has also represented Jamaica on the senior national team as well as the under-17 and under-20 national teams.

After graduating from Wake Forest, Smart will return home to Orlando, Florida, and begin applying to PA school this summer. She will also be working as a medical assistant to fulfill her patient career experience hours for PA school. Last year, Smart started a pre-PA club on campus that was chartered this semester. Smart spent a lot of time organizing the club’s goals and meetings while also helping out other pre-PA students.

“I am so excited that she will be going to PA school, because I have no doubt Shayla will be an asset to the field and help so many patients who need her,” Eaves said.

While Smart is grateful for all she has learned and experienced within the HES department throughout her time at Wake Forest, she is ready to get into the professional field for a more handson experience.

“I’m excited to take everything I’ve learned from the past four years and go work in the field that interests me,” Smart said, “rather than just learning everything in the classroom,” Smart said.

HISTORY LEJIU (JULIE) SUN

KATIE FOX Photography Editor

Lejiu (Julie) Sun arrived at Wake Forest from Hangzhou, China with a keen interest in history. During her first semester of freshman year, she took a seminar class (HST 343) with Drs. Qiong Zhang and Jeffrey Lerner on the Silk Road. While sitting in the library, brainstorming a topic for her final paper, Sun noticed a cup of tea on the table and started researching. After a month of composition, she finished a 25-page essay on the Tea-Horse Road as a first-year student, and Zhang suggested she could extend it further and present it at an upcoming Silk Road conference in Reynolda Village.

By the end of her first year, she had presented on a student panel and won both the Richard Worden Griffin Research Prize in Asian, African, or Latin American History and the David W. Hadley Prize for Historical Writing at the 100 Level from the History Department.

The summer after Sun’s sophomore year, she was granted a Richter scholarship to continue her research on the Tea-Horse Road. Sun also attended the European Institute for the History and Culture of Foods (IEHCA) International Conference on Food History and Cultures virtually as Dr. Robert Hellyer’s research assistant.

“Julie has an amazing curiosity about history,” Hellyer said. “She is always ready to seize on any opportunity to learn about the past and better understand how it has shaped our world today.”

After returning from her Richter trip, which she spent in Tibet for 28 days and knocking door-todoor around 33 historical sites to create primary source documentation, Sun presented her findings at the Undergraduate Research Day and the ACC Meeting of Minds conference. Electing to conduct independent research through the HST 392 course, Sun continued with her research and published her first thesis draft in Fall 2021, which Zhang was thoroughly impressed with.

“Julie has a tremendous drive and clear sense of purpose,” Zhang reflected. “She tackled her thesis project like a doctoral student approaching her dissertation.”

Sun described her months of research through the Richter and on her own, studying scholarly literature in English and Chinese, as well as Chinese primary sources, which prepared her well to construct a timeline and central focus.

“With such a massive amount of preliminary work already completed on her own, we were able to spend the semester on close analysis of the most relevant primary sources, testing and reshaping her argument and articulating her original contribution in relation to previous scholarship,” Zhang continued. “Her rich original insights, meticulous spade work, and relentless pursuit of perfection were nothing short of inspirational.”

Throughout her time at Wake Forest, Sun wrote, presented and even published some of her extensive research in the field of history. She will also graduate with her North Carolina social studies teaching license after completing her minor and certification in Secondary Education, as well as a minor in East Asian Language Studies.

In addition to her impressive academic achievements, Sun has been involved in various Chinese Student Committees, working to promote the Chinese Students & Scholars Association and as a coordinator for the Chinese Historians in the United States (CHUS). Sun also serves as a library ambassador at ZSR. “I am consistently impressed by Lejiu’s determination to understand complex sources, her commitment to economic history, and her curiosity and passion for the practice of history.” One of her graduate school recommenders, department chair Dr. Monique O’Connell said. The recommendations paid off and in the fall, Sun will attend the University of Chicago to work towards a graduate degree in history, with hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in the future.