Sky's The Limit

When you want an example of the ideal NCAA Division III student-athlete, all you need to do is look inside a circle during the spring at Adrian College. This is where you will find junior pitcher Kelly Eberhardt, who not only excels on the diamond for the Bulldog softball team, but also in the classroom as a biology major with a minor in chemistry. This past season, Eberhardt helped lead the Bulldogs to an overall record of 29-11 and a second place finish in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Eberhardt won 20 of those games in the circle for the Bulldogs with an ERA of 2.06 in 190.1 innings. She was named First Team All-MIAA and Third Team All-Region under head coach Kristina Schweikert and also set the single-season school record with 195 strikeouts.

Eberhardt hopes to be a neo-natal nurse practitioner once she graduates from Adrian College and she had a unique opportunity this past summer working with NASA in the Lewis’ Educational and Research Collaborative Internship Project (LERCIP). LERCIP was based out of the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Eberhardt is a native of Wellington, Ohio which is approximately 50 minutes southwest of Cleveland. After a long application process, she was accepted into the coveted internship program and worked extensively with ceramics that would work in jet engines. The ceramics are a better resource for jet engines because it can get to higher temperature without melting and is more energy efficient and eco-friendly.

“This was a completely new experience for me than a traditional biology lab,” said Eberhardt. “I got the chance to work with something completely foreign to me. It was a bit intimidating at first, but athletics has given me confidence to try new things and know that I can succeed in difficult circumstances.”

LERCIP is a 10-week, 40 hours a week paid internship in which the person must maintain a 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale at a college or university pursuing degrees in engineering, science, mathematics and other aerospace-related disciplines. These mentor-guided internships provide hands-on, real-life, career-related experiences that challenge, inspire, and provide practical application that compliments and expands upon students’ academic education. The internships are a collaborative undertaking by the Educational Programs Office at the Glenn Research Center (GRC) and the Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI).

Eberhardt will use the research she collected in hopes that the findings will be featured in a research paper that is eventually published in a professional journal or magazine. She also is involved on campus with Chi Omega as a treasurer and in religious life.