MOSCOW, Idaho – Laura Gerner and Sean McCormick are this week's Vandals of the Week. Both are off to tremendous starts this year after finishing strong in the spring as well.
 
Gerner, a graduate student on the women's golf team, wrapped up her undergraduate degree in business economics with a minor in statistics in the spring, and has moved on to begin her graduate program in applied economics. McCormick, a sophomore with the football program, got out to an exceptional start and finished his freshman year with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average in medical science. 
 
"I chose economics with a statistics minor mostly because I was looking for a general business degree," said Gerner. "When I started out I started with marketing and economics but found that I really enjoyed the economics side. Right now I'm looking at transitioning into more natural resource economics and looking at water use research."
 
"I've always wanted to join the medical field and hopefully I can get into medical school and become an orthopedic surgeon," McCormick said. "That's the end goal for my career. I've always just been super interested in the medical field. My dad's a general surgeon, so I think that definitely plays a part in it. I've just really been super fascinated with just the body and how it works."
 
For McCormick, it was a past experience that truly motivated him to excel early in his collegiate career.
 
"I know going into high school I did not work as hard as I should've my freshman year and I knew I wasn't going to make that same mistake coming into college," said McCormick. "I was really dedicated to school. That is one of my goals, hopefully I can graduate with a 4.0. That's one thing I strive for, I really like to work hard at school."
 
For Gerner, moving everything online in her final semester as an undergrad provided its own unique challenges. But she persevered then and will continue to persevere with new challenges this semester.
 
"Having everything change when COVID happened was really difficult," Gerner said. "It was a challenge. I did a lot with groups through Zoom. Zoom has been a big help. And just emailing back and forth with professors. It definitely took a lot of extra will power, to keep motivated through those last few weeks and push to the end."
 
Gerner competed in every tournament for the Vandals last season and will be back for a fifth season in 2020-21. McCormick got his feet wet with the Vandals as a freshman, appearing in five games. He made his mark immediately, blocking a field goal against Penn State in the season-opener.