My Carolina Experience: Maria Santoyo
June 25, 2014 | Women's Rowing
My Carolina Experience: Maria Santoyo
By Zoya Johnson, GoHeels.com
Maria Santoyo was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. When she was 8 her father moved her and her family from Mexico to Connecticut, due to his job with IBM. A few years later they relocated to North Carolina.
Though the first move from Mexico to Connecticut had excited a young Maria, the move from Connecticut to North Carolina is one she made reluctantly.
"I was very excited to move the first time but ironically enough when I was told we had to move to North Carolina I was distraught," says Santoyo, a four-year member of the UNC rowing team who graduated in May. "Obviously it's impossible to know but I think I would have never ended up at Carolina if my family hadn't moved south."
The move is one that lead her to enroll at Cardinal Gibbons High School, which then provided her with the education to have her pick between UNC, Duke or NC State. Once she visited UNC's campus the decision was simple, and she feels it was the best of her life thus far.
Something many UNC fans may not know about Santoyo is that she earned her second-degree black belt before taking up rowing. Prior to her sophomore year on campus, when she started to excel as a rower, she competed against NC State and Duke in sparring competitions.
At the beginning of her sophomore year she made the decision to step away from the Tae Kwon Do club team in order to focus more of her energy on rowing.
"The transition from martial arts to rowing was very strange given that they are on completely different sides of the spectrum," Santoyo admits. "However, I owe all of the qualities that made me good rower to my Tae Kwon Do instructor. It was with him that I learned how to be a fierce competitor and disciplined athlete."
During our interview, she also admitted to her initial reluctance to join the rowing team. "Four years later I look back and realize my experience at Carolina would not have been as memorable had I not been a part of the team and (my experience) was without a doubt enhanced because of it," Santoyo says.
"I learned a lot of valuable lessons regarding discipline, hard work, prioritizing, perseverance and commitment that positively affected my life on and off the water. I owe the best four years of my life to UNC and to being able to represent that Carolina blue as a rower side by side with some of the most amazing girls I have ever met."
Through her experiences on campus, as a rower and a student, Santoyo has been able to discover her passions while developing into a strong candidate for the work force.
It was a Disney Institute workshop for Student-Athlete Advisory Council members and Veteran Leaders that opened the necessary doors and lead her to land a position as a sales representative for the Disney Institute.
"I had been applying for different jobs with the company but after talking to workshop leaders I was steered in the right direction and given very valuable tools that led me to the job," she says.
After four years at a place Santoyo can say made her the person she is today, the transition from Carolina to Disney feels right.
"Now it makes me feel very happy and proud to say I found this opportunity thanks to my involvement with Carolina Athletics," she says. "It could not be more fitting that it worked out that way because it has been my entire life for the past four years and now it has provided what I will pursue next.
"My goals for this new endeavor will not differ from how I attacked every day of my life while at UNC. Wake up with determination and go to bed with satisfaction. I want to stand out and exceed expectations and be proud to say I learned to work hard, to challenge myself and pursue my dreams at Carolina. "
Santoyo's experience of being a nationally-ranked martial artist and walking on to the rowing team and eventually becoming a co-captain speaks to the kind of people who are attracted to this University. She is a person who understands drive and who also understands standing for something that is bigger than you.
"I am not sure how I would have turned out if I hadn't rowed but based on my experience I learned I am capable of anything I set my mind to if am willing to put in the work to get it," she says.
"When I started out I thought I understood what I wanted and who I wanted to be but Carolina gave me the tools I needed to develop into the person, leader, scholar and athlete I am today. And although where I ended up was very different from where I originally thought I would be, it is much better than I ever imagined."
Although as a freshman she may have bitten off more than she could handle being on the rowing team, going to class, doing homework, and then going to martial arts practice late at night, she knew that being a part of something was important to her.
That is an essential part of the Carolina Way. I believe she phrased it beautifully when she said the following, "Once you are there with the red bricks planted under your feet, the majestic green trees swaying in the quad in front of your eyes, the sweet melody of the Bell Tower floating into your ears and the pure happiness to be a Tar Heel embodied by every person around you, then you understand.
"Then you know that is where you are supposed to be. And the opportunity to represent everything that that stands for is no longer a matter of whether that is where you want to be but rather how long do you have to wait until you get to be there."
Carolina is where Santoyo found herself. It is also where many greats have done the same and will continue to be just that. Beyond all of this, Carolina is where these greats will find their calling and be given opportunities to nurture that calling while watching as it becomes so much more than they ever thought possible.
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