Cougar Scholars is a monthly series highlighting Chicago State student-athletes through the lens of their studies and professional pursuits. This month features women's tennis student-athlete Susie Andres.
Read more from our previous scholar-athletes here:
When Susie Andres first sat down in a Quantum physics class at Chicago State, she admittedly had little clue what she was looking at.
"At first, it was Chinese to me," Andres said. "Even our professor was like, 'You won't get this at first, but eventually you will.' And it was true. The fact that I didn't know anything at first, and at the end, I got something out of it, it was pretty amazing."
Andres, a rising senior and an All-WAC Honorable Mention performer on Chicago State's women's tennis team, now certifies as a pro amongst her peers. She is putting the finishing touches on her summer internship with Fermilab, a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that focuses on high-energy particle physics and is based near Batavia, Illinois.
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Andres earned All-WAC Honorable Mention recognition after the 2020-21 season.
Andres is working remotely from her home in Madrid, Spain, which has allowed her to soak up some much-needed family time while diving into the Fermilab internship. At Fermilab, she has worked in the High-Performance Computing Department, specializing in the Muon g-2 experiment.
To many, "Muon g-2" is gibberish, so Andres explains how she works into the endeavor.
"They accelerate protons so that they collide," Andres said. "So in the computing part, there are billions of files of data. I've learned how to compile and save it in the system. In order to get the data, like distance, velocity and energy, I have to learn the system."
Andres' work on massive projects at Fermilab has exposed her to a field that she, like many, didn't even know existed beforehand.
"I've been so inspired by the magnitude of this lab," Andres said. "I didn't know these experiments were taking place. All of the lectures about accelerators and particle systems, they were talking about this scientific field. I've gotten to learn a lot about high-energy science.
"I've gotten to see that there are a lot of amazing, intelligent, hard-working people behind all of this. The fact that I can take a piece of it is amazing for me. It's opened my eyes."
Andres is soon set to plunge into her senior year at Chicago State. Already armed with accolades ranging from earning the CSU Athletics Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor and President's Honor Roll recognition, she is fired up to be returning to Chicago soon.
"I met a family at Chicago State," Andres said. "My team is amazing, and my coaches are amazing. I'm so grateful for them. That has helped me while being so far away from home. They are my other home. It's like I have two lives. I'm super happy here."
