Michigan State University Athletics
11/26/2019 2:19:00 PM | Volleyball
by Julian Mitchell, special to MSUSpartans.com
 For nearly four years, Samantha McLean has been living a double life.Â
In one life, the 5-foot-8 senior shines as the starting defensive specialist/libero on the Michigan State volleyball team. She averages 1.80 digs per set. Sh's been a staunch defender in MSU's back row, twice earning the team's Most Inspirational Award. Â Â
In her other life, McLean shines with a 4.0 in the classroom as a kinesiology major on the pre-medical track.
Someway, somehow, she's been able to do both at the highest level. Her determination and intelligence have earned her CoSIDA All-America honors a year ago and twice seeing her name among Academic All-Big Ten  and Big Ten Distinguished Scholar honorees. Â
"It takes a lot of discipline I would say, it's definitely not perfect there are times when it gets really hard having to make that time to study for all my classes," McLean, a native of Grand Rapids, said. "Especially, when we're on the road or traveling, I'm making sure that every time I have off whether it's on the plane to the place we're traveling, on the bus, in the hotel I'm doing the things I need to do to be successful in my classes."Â
She got on the pre-med track her sophomore year, after falling in love with a physiology class. She even thought about changing her major to physiology, but she ended up finding a passion for medicine.
 "I think as I've kind of explored the field more I've realized," she said. "I think that medicine is going in a different direction, and more on a preventative side and focusing more on health and wellness, lifestyle changes and nutrition. And that's what I'm really passionate about. I want to be at the forefront of that change. Instead of diagnosing people and treating people with drugs, I want to focus more on lifestyle and prevention."
It's this passion and perspective that fuels McLean. She loves volleyball and wants to be a great player, but she sees her future in medicine. She wasn't always this clear about her path, as it took a break from volleyball to get this perspective.
Her sophomore year, as the team was in the midst of battling for a Big Ten title, McLean was in a moped accident. While she was stopped on her way to the Smith Center, a raised pick-up truck hit her from behind. She wasn't seriously injured, but did have a partially torn UCL in her elbow and a concussion that caused her to miss the rest of the season and the team's Elite Eight run.Â
 "We lost to Michigan the night before that happened, so that was a really hard loss for our team, and we were really upset by it and then having that (the accident) happen it kind of put a lot of different things in perspective to me. That volleyball is just a game and in the grand scheme of things it's not the most important thing, because that accident could have been really bad," McLean said.
Balancing being a pre-med student and an athlete can be difficult with the time and dedication required for both, and at a certain point, something might have to be sacrificed.
McLean has had to miss out on some things, but has made finding a balance look easy.
 "I definitely would say you have to sacrifice more free time with friends, you have to decide what's important and what your goals are," reflects the senior.  "Maybe instead of going to movies with people, I may say no and just stay home and study.  I've had to sacrifice a bit of stuff like that which honestly hasn't been that hard. I am so passionate about what I'm doing that I know in the long run it's going to be worth it,"Â
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