When Marissa Bell made the short move from her Rogersville, Tennessee, home to the University of Tennessee’s Knoxville campus, she knew which boxes she wanted to check.
“I’ve always been athletic — gymnastics, running, swim team in high school, and I love the outdoors,” she says. “So I knew that, at UT, I wanted something athletic, outdoors and on the water, if possible.”
She made the novice women’s rowing team, but didn’t last long — because at the end of the first semester, she and two teammates were promoted to the varsity team and awarded scholarships.
“One of the biggest turning points of my life,” says Bell, now in her third year as vice president at Chattanooga-based Waterhouse Public Relations.