From Harvard to Sale - Erica Jarrell-Searcy's epic PWR pilgrimage
She was fiercely academic. Studying molecular biology at one of the world's most prestigious universities, she was following in a family tradition. Jarrell-Searcy's parents met over a test-tube centrifuge in a laboratory.
Her grandfather - Dudley Herschbach – won a Nobel Prize in chemistry. "My childhood was just sort of curious I guess," Jarrell-Searcy says. "The main trait my parents instilled in us was having a deep sense of exploration for things.
By the age of 10, helped by a precisely plotted parental diary, Jarrell-Searcy had tried gymnastics, baseball, soccer, basketball and swimming. Equestrian, which she started aged three, was her main activity though. At the end of a high-school day, she would travel an hour to the riding stable, practise from 8pm to 10pm, return home, do her homework, grab some sleep and start again.
It paid off. Aged 17, she won team gold at the junior national championships. On one occasion, a horse flipped, fell on Jarrell-Searcy and both rider and mount bounced up uninjured.
So, on seeing the subject line, she opened the email. "At that point, I thought rugby was a weird European word for soccer, right? " she says.