ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: Forssander Cherishes Harper Experience

Although Harper softball player Amanda Forssander only played for the Hawks for one season (2013), she relished the opportunity to compete at the college level. In her only season, the Prospect High School grad hit over .300 and earned Team MVP honors while playing catcher, first base and outfield for the Hawks.

Forssander has since moved on to play club softball at Illinois State University (ISU), and she credits her Harper experience as instrumental in making that happen.

"Because of my experience at Harper, I enjoyed softball a lot more. The overall atmosphere was really great," she said. "The coaching staff always gave you an opportunity to shine. It gave me the confidence to try out for ISU's team."

Forssander only played one year at the varsity level at Prospect, but says she got a lot of positive feedback from the Harper coaching staff and improved her game as a result. Academically, she earned N4C Academic All-Conference honors and also became the first person in the college to earn an Associate of Arts in Teaching (AAT) degree.

Forssander also feels she made a wise choice financially coming to Harper College because her family has four students in college.

"It's been a big challenge. At first I was going to go to ISU, but then I realized it'd be silly because I can do the same thing here to start," she said.

At ISU, she holds a GPA above 3.0, is an S-Stem Scholar, and is majoring in Mathematics Secondary Education. Forssander will be a senior this fall and will student teach in the spring of 2015 before graduating.

She recently returned to Harper in early July for the Harper softball recruit signing day. Forssander likes seeing how the program is improving as each year goes by and is thankful for her opportunity to be a part of it.

"Coming to this program was great because I had the opportunity to show myself, work with a great coaching staff and have great teammates. All the time and effort was worth it."