Volleyball
Favorite athlete: Ronda Rousey (UFC)
Favorite team: Penn State Women’s Volleyball
Favorite memory competing in sports: Getting points on three stuff blocks in a row to win a tiebreaker game from behind in club volleyball
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: My friend and I both went to pass a ball, but she ended up accidentally punching me in the eye and ripping my contact lens in half.
Music on iPod: Music of many different genres from many different countries.
Future plans: Going into international relations
One goal before turning 30: Be totally fluent in three languages other than English.
One thing people don’t know about me: I like to bake.
By Craig Ostroff
Senioritis will never be a problem for Georgianna Eck. The North Penn senior simply doesn’t have the time to slow down.
In addition to a challenging courseload in school, Eck has been practicing martial arts since she was six and is a First Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. She is a Distinguished Honor Roll Student, excels in both Japanese and German languages and has earned Silver and Gold Medals on the National German and National Japanese exams. She has been the editor-in-chief of her middle school and high school literary magazine since eighth grade, is a member of the National Honors Society, the National Japanese Honors Society, the Key Club, and she serves as president of the International Friendship Club. She sings in the North Penn High School Chorus and has performed in two school musical productions.
And that’s just a fraction of Eck’s activities and interests.
“I’m involved in a lot of different things, but they’re all the parts that make up who I am,” Eck said. “It’s something I had struggled with – do I have to focus or define myself as one thing? But I think the fact that I’m involved in so many different things is what defines me as a person.
“I’ve always been a person who likes to be busy, and I think I’m a lot better off because of all the different things I do. I feel that I’m living my life to the fullest. I never want to look back and have regrets about something I didn’t do.”
Among all those clubs and commitments, Eck also finds the time for practices and games as a middle hitter on the North Penn girls volleyball team.
And while Eck may have a ton of other things on her plate, when she’s in the gym, she is 100 percent dedicated to her team and her teammates.
“Georgi is a very hard worker,” said North Penn girls volleyball coach Kevin Eck, who also happens to be her uncle. “She always comes with the right attitude, she works very hard, she’s very vocal and supportive of her teammates.
“When she first started playing varsity (in 10th grade), she was very quiet and reserved, but very coachable. You rarely have to repeat things to her and she picks up on it and she does it. As she’s gotten older, she’s matured and she’s really blossomed into the consummate teammate.”
The Maidens managed only three wins in each of Eck’s previous two varsity seasons. If you think she takes wins and losses in stride because of all her other activities, you’d be wrong.
“When I’m committed to something, I’m fully committed to it,” she said. “To me, it’s not worth it if I didn’t give it 100 percent every day I play. I want to be the best I can be to help the team and to make my team the best it can be.”
“I use football analogy of ‘strapping it on,’” added coach Eck. “Georgi comes out and it’s like she straps on that helmet, and when she does that, she’s a totally different kid – she’s hyperfocused. Off the court, you see the 17-year-old girl that has all these interests and is friendly and talkative, but on the court she’s all business.”
There are early signs of the team turning the corner this year, with the Maidens standing at 1-2 overall heading into Friday’s game, but the senior said she’s confident that the wins will come as the squad continues to improve and come together.
“I’m really enjoying my senior season so far,” Eck said. “While I do feel like I’m playing my best volleyball so far, volleyball has to be about the team, and I feel we’ve been steadily improving as a team. Everyone is playing better, and I feel like this year the team has been melding together better than previous years. The coaching has been exceptional this year and that’s all helped us to improve far faster than previous years.
“I think over the years, I’ve learned to control my emotions more on the court. My coaches and fellow players have gotten better at keeping the right mindset; we’re able to pick each other up and generate a positive attitude for everyone on team so we don’t get down on ourselves. Volleyball is a very mentally trying game, and keeping your head up can be hard to do. Everyone has to contribute to that positive mindset, and if I can contribute to it, that’s what I need to do to help make the team successful.”
It is that desire to challenge and push herself that may be Eck’s defining characteristic. Take, for example, her introduction to Japanese culture when she began taking Kenpo Karate at age six. While many would find more than enough of a challenge in improving and working up to a Black Belt in the martial art, Eck decided she wanted to challenge herself even more.
“When I was a really young, I used to do dance, and I decided suddenly that I’d rather fight because I liked the idea of it a lot more,” Eck said. “It’s a tough sport. You really have to have that discipline. But I like the challenge. I like being able to buckle down and see it pay off. It’s had a huge effect on my life.
“As I got older, I became very invested in the language and culture. Martial arts led me to my interest in foreign languages.”
When she got to sixth grade, Eck began learning the Japanese language. Not in school, however. She taught it to herself using books, teacher resources and videos, and immersing herself in Japanese television and music to pick up conversational cues.
“I didn’t take a formal class until 10th grade,” Eck said. “Most of my learning has been independent. I do have an excellent teacher at my school and I could not have gotten to where I am now without her. Very early on in my classes in high school, my teacher started giving me extra study packets. My teacher has been very accommodating, she’s spent a lot of time helping me with independent study.”
It’s certainly paid off. Eck earned a Gold Medal in the Japanese Level One at the James Doyle Oral Competition in 2014, the same year in which she achieved a perfect score in the National Japanese Exam and became Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level N5 Certified. She earned a Gold in the National Japanese Exam in 2015 as well, and over the summer, she spent several weeks in Japan as a youth ambassador as part of the Japan Foundation JET-MIP Scholarship program.
“I went with 31 other students from the United States after going through a very rigorous application and screening process,” Eck said. “I had to do an interview in Japanese on Skype, I needed a teacher recommendation, I had to write an essay in English, my grade point average had to be high enough. I took a national exam for Japanese and had to have a minimum score to be considered.”
This was no sightseeing trip, though. Eck and her fellow ambassadors were fully immersed in the Japanese language and spoke with some fairly high-ranking officials.
“I went where the March 11 tsunami hit,” Eck said. “We met with political officials and we all talked about ways to reconstruct the area. It was a diplomatic trip, so we mostly met with politicians and talked about reconstruction and things like that. It was a wonderful experience. I gave a speech to open one of the conferences in Japanese. I had to MC a dinner party in Japanese. But it forces you to learn and use the language.”
Her interest in foreign language has Eck on the path to studying International Relations in college in the hopes of eventually working for the United Nations or becoming a diplomat.
Of course, to work in the international community, it would help to speak more languages than just English and Japanese. And of course, Eck does.
She’s quite proficient in German as well, having earned Silver Medals in 2014 and 2015 on the National German Exam and a Gold Medal in German Level Three at James Doyle Oral Competition this year.
“My family’s ancestors come from Germany, and my school offers German,” said Eck, who noted that she plans on adding Mandarin to her repertoire in college. “I feel like German is a very interesting language. It’s more removed from English than Spanish or French, so it’s more challenging and more fun to learn.”
With all her commitments, Eck said she’s had her share of 2 a.m. nights finishing up homework. But she added that she has always had a strong support group in the form of her family.
“My parents are always in my corner,” she said. “They support me 100 percent in everything I do. They do sometimes worry I do have too much on my plate. They always say, ‘The only thing we want is for you to be happy and healthy. Pursue your dreams, be happy.’
“When things get too stressed, they’re the ones telling me to calm down. But they’re also the ones who are always pushing me to do something in a positive way. They’ve never held me back from anything I wanted to do.”
Her uncle/coach added: “Georgi is the kind of kid that understands they’re a student first and an athlete second. But she also understands that when she’s in the gym, it’s all about athletics then. You’ve got to be focused to get better, and that goes for everything you do.
“I am very proud of everything that she does. She is that well-rounded kid, and understands the value of being a well-rounded student, especially when you’re applying to colleges. They don’t just want to see academics, or athletics, they want to see that you’re the whole package.”
For Eck, that package includes myriad other clubs and activities at North Penn. In addition to her participation on the literary magazine, chorus and school musicals, Eck has also participated in the North Penn Improv Troupe and the Simulated Gaming Society.
“Those things all fit into different parts of my life,” she said. “Chorus is a class at my school, so I can take it during my school day. It’s more of a casual outlet for me – I’m able to relax and just sing and be with my friends. It’s down time to unwind. I did the Improv Troupe my sophomore year, the school musicals in eighth and ninth grade. The gaming society, one of my friends was really into that. So that was relaxing kind of thing, and it was a way to make time to see my friends.”
For Eck, if there’s one passion that rivals language, it’s writing. In her spare time – what little she has – she can often be found writing.
“It’s probably my number one passion in life,” Eck said. “For the literary magazine, I tend to write mostly fiction short stories. But I’ve written a couple novels, novellas, that someday I’d like to be published. I sometimes wish I could write more often, but I always try to make time for it because I love it so much.”
And if she were asked to write the perfect ending to her final season on the volleyball court for North Penn?
“The best way to go out would be to be able to look back at season and our last game and say we gave it our all,” Eck said. “Whether we were to make it far (in the postseason) or not, I would still like to be able to look back and say that we gave it our all. I want to be able to look back and see how much we’ve improved. Being on a team, it’s all about improvement, trying your best. It’s not about the outcome as much as the process. Of course, I’d love to win, but I do think there’s more to volleyball than just winning.”
