Jessica Wacker

Position:
Foil/Right Hand
Height:
5-4
Class:
Redshirt
Hometown:
Summit, N.J.
High School:
Oak Knoll

Majoring in speech and hearing science with a minor in English ... Interning at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center ... Serves as vice president of off-campus funding for Coach for College, a program in which collegiate student-athletes travel to Vietnam to help children develop the skills they'll need to go on to college ... Inducted into Phi Sigma Pi national honors fraternity and Lambda Pi Eta national communication studies fraternity ... Participant in the Carolina Leadership Academy's Veteran Leaders program ... Represents the team on the Student-Athlete Advisory Council

Fencing at UNC: In her fourth season on the team ... Serves as co-captain of the women's foil squad for the third year ... Participates in NCAA Regionals in 2006 and 2007 ... Rookie of the Year for women's foil in 2006 ... Named to the ACC Academic Honor Roll and Dean's List ... Started fencing as a freshman in high school

Before UNC: At Oak Knoll School, fenced all four years, captaining the squad as a senior ... Team MVP, Most Dedicated and Rookie of the Year during her career ... Played three years of field hockey, earning Best Defensive Player all three years

Personal: Born March 5, 1987, in Summit, N.J. ... Daughter of Emil and Stella Wacker ... Has one younger brother, Zachery (18)

More on Wacker: Nickname is Jess ... Favorite pastimes are reading, playing sports, dancing, singing, traveling and sailing ... Favorite book is whatever she has most recently read ... Favorite TV show is Family Guy ... Favorite movies are any James Bond movie ... Favorite sport other than fencing is anything new and competitive ... Has collected favorite poems since high school and made her own mini-anthology with pictures ... Has traveled to most of the states in the U.S., Russia, Morocco, Vietnam, Germany, Greece, Italy, France, England, Mexico, Canada and Saint Martin ... Biggest pet peeve is people who take life too seriously ... After graduation from UNC, plans to earn a Ph.D. in speech language pathology and eventually start her own practice, or work for a non-profit organization like Operation Smile, helping children in third-world countries who do not have access to medical and speech treatment ... Dream job is to be a modern Audrey Hepburn - actress, fashion icon and humanitarian ... With a completely free day, would sleep in, drive to the beach with friends, spend all day there and then go out dancing at night