Blackwood, Graab named Mr. and Ms. Georgia Tech

Steven Blackwood and Alison Graab won this year's Mr. and Ms. Georgia Tech. Blackwood is a fifth-year Biology major, and Graab is a fourth-year Earth and Atmospheric Science and International Affairs double-major..

Every homecoming during halftime of the football game, Mr. and Mrs. Georgia Tech are named out of five finalists for each. It caps off an approximately month long process that includes an application where candidates list honors, achievements, and goals, as well as interviews. A minimum 3.2 GPA is required to apply and a panel of judges narrows down the candidates to ten for each. Students may then vote for their choice and the election results count in equal weight with the interview results to determine the winner.

Both Graab and Blackwood said they were shocked when they heard their names called on the field.

"It was pretty exciting. I was really surprised and I was really nervous beforehand but it was a neat feeling," Graab said.

"Honestly, I really didn't think I was going to win because I was up against the fraternity guys and I figured they were automatically going to have the 200 votes they'll get from their fraternity brothers. That was the most well rounded group of individuals I had ever been around, how connected they were on campus, and I figured they were more well-connected than I was for baseball, especially since I wasn't playing this year," Blackwood said.

Blackwood, who played as an outfielder for the Tech baseball team his first four years on campus, was sponsored by the Athletic Association's Sports Information Department, who he has been working for this year. His decision to enter the running for Mr. Georgia Tech was last-minute, which made his eventual success that much more surprising.

"I found out about the application very late. My roommates were actually running for this also and both of them were filling out their application the night before. I didn't think anything of it because I thought you had to be Greek to run anyway. The only way I was able to fill out my application was because I'm applying to medical school this fall, and there was a lot of overlap between the two applications, so I was able to cut and paste and move some things around and put some finishing touches on the essay portion. I turned in the application and did not really think anything of it. I hoped something would come out of it," Blackwood said.

Blackwood said he is applying to medical schools all over the southeast but hopes to attend either Emory or the Medical College of Georgia. In moving forward towards a career in medicine he had to make the decision to bring his competitive baseball career to a close, including rejecting several offers from professional minor-league baseball teams.

"I have had people ask me did you ever regret not going to play minor league baseball, and if I did then I wouldn't have been able to go play in the College World Series, I wouldn't have made the connections that I've made this year with getting to know a lot of the faculty here at Tech, connections that will help me the rest of my life, and the experience of being around more of a team-oriented baseball team. I really appreciate that and those are memories I'll be able to cherish and hold onto the rest of my life. But [being named Mr. Georgia Tech], I guess it really trumps it all, because I never really expected it to happen. I'd see somebody win it every year, and I'd think that would be a pretty cool thing to be able to run for, but I didn't think I ever had a shot, so it's interesting how in the course of 24 hours in my room I can turn around an application and end up winning the thing," Blackwood said.

Like Blackwood, Graab also had not originally set out on entering the running and in fact she originally swore she would never do such a thing.

"After campaigning for SGA president I said I would never do something where students could vote on me again. Getting voted on is a little bit stressful. But I did it because I was nominated by Phi Gamma Delta; they asked me to do it for them, and it was quite an honor to be nominated so I appreciated that and took them up on it." Graab said.

Graab plans to attend law school after graduating at the end of next year, hopefully at Emory or Duke, and to eventually practice environmental law. She chose to pursue both Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) and International Affairs (INTA) as majors to give her a solid background in that area.

"I'm definitely stronger at writing and reading and speaking than I am at science and math, but I was interested in environmental issues, and I wanted to have a technical background, and I thought that having a degree in the College of Science would be something very beneficial to me and understanding the data and the collection of research and everything that goes into policy making is extremely important in my opinion. I don't know how you formulate policy and look at law and that sort of thing if you don't understand the technical side of it, so I wanted to have that background and I thought the two were a really good combination. [I chose INTA because] the environmental issues I'm interested in are more international in scope, and I think it will take more collaboration among many different countries and governments," Graab said.

Aside from her commitment to student government, which around her classes usually keeps her busy from 8 a.m. to midnight every day, Graab is also a member of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority and Gamma Beta Tau, the EAS honor society.

"It is an honor and I am appreciative. It is nice to know that students are so supportive," Graab said.