KU Scholar Athlete of the Month: Jeffrey Schriefer
Jeffrey Made Big Splash at School
- School: Lexington Catholic High
- GRADE: 12
- Sport: Swimming
- Academics: Jeffrey has a 3.94 unweighted GPA, scored 34 on the ACT, took nine A.P. classes, and plays piano and is a percussionist.
- Parents: Norma & Jeff
How many teenagers these days when asked to explain the source of their motivation will respond with a quote – recited by heart – from Winston Churchill?
There’s at least one. Jeffrey Schriefer-Flores, 18, graduated from Lexington Catholic this year with a 3.94 unweighted GPA, scored 34 on the ACT, took nine A.P. classes and was captain of the swim team that won the school’s first ever combined State championship.
Jeffrey, who speaks fluent Spanish, has accepted an academic scholarship and will swim at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
He will study aerospace engineering and minor in political science with an eye toward law school.
If you’re headed to law school, why pick such a demanding, seemingly unrelated major like aerospace engineering?
“I like a challenge and I always like to take the hard road,” Jeffrey said before quoting Churchill.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.”
Jeffrey is also an accomplished musician. He is a percussionist in the school band and has played piano since he was 7. He is currently composing a musical score for a film that a school friend is making.
All through high school, he was committed to shattering myths about strong students, athletes and musicians.
“I disliked the stereotype that a good athlete had to be bad in the classroom or that someone good in the classroom was no good in sports or that musicians couldn’t be athletes,” he said.
How to succeed at all three? Self-discipline.
“With his schedule, he had to be disciplined,” his father Jeff said. “He gave up things on the social side to accomplish what he has done. He’s a hard worker.”
A National Honor Society member, Jeffrey is a Music Honor Society member and winner of the school A.P. Scholar Award and the St. Michael’s College Book Award.
Club memberships include the Beta, Latin, Diversity and Por La Vida (Pro Life), and he served on the Honor Council.
He’s an avid reader and lists J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis among his favorite authors.
He also played in the school jazz band and earned the Lexington Philharmonic Guild’s High School Senior Award.
A person of deep faith, he is an Altar Server at Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary and sat on the Leadership Committee of the Ohio Valley ECyD, an international Catholic Youth Organization.
As a swimmer, versatility is Jeffrey’s hallmark. His events have included the 50 free, 100 butterfly, 100 backstroke and the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
“Being team captain for a State championship team, that still feels surreal,” he said. “It’s truly unbelievable.”