While many of her classmates are frantically looking for jobs, Engineering senior Sherri Wykosky jokes that she already has a great career lined up -- with the circus.
Wykosky has been twirling a baton since she was in second grade and has been performing with the Penn Band at football games and other events for the past four years.
She also ventures into the more dangerous tricks, twirling knives and flaming batons.
"Twirling is a big combination of dancing, juggling and gymnastics," she said. "When I toss the baton, people look at the baton, but I'm actually doing stuff underneath."
Dropping the baton during a performance doesn't worry Wykosky as much as some would believe, she said, because she twirls it about 50 to 100 times per performance.
Wykosky got her start with the baton at the age of seven, when she saw some baton twirlers perform at a football game in her hometown of Bethlehem, Pa., and instantly wanted to learn the skill.
"I saw the head baton twirler, and I just thought this was the coolest thing ever," she said.
Wykosky wanted to be like the head twirler one day, wearing a special costume and performing on the field by herself.
Her goal was to join the majorettes and become head twirler in her high school.
She had several advantages in realizing her dream. Wykosky's high school had several other twirlers and a large marching band, and her mother was also a baton twirler. Pennsylvania is also noted for producing good twirlers, Wykosky said.
She competed in competitions from fourth through 10th grade, but twirling wasn't her top priority once she reached high school, where she didn't compete as often in order to focus on academics.
When choosing a college, she didn't look specifically for a place where she would be able to twirl, but was excited to later learn that Penn had twirlers at football games.
"It was kind of the icing on the cake," she said.
During her first few years at Penn, Wykosky worked with another twirler but now performs solo.
She has thought about competing outside of school again but says it's hard to find the time to get the practice she would need.
"To compete at a high enough level now, I would need to be practicing three to four hours a day." Wykosky said.
Although twirling is something Wykosky enjoys, she hopes to have a career engineering medical devices.
She decided to study bioengineering because she "liked medicine, but I didn't want to be a doctor," Wykosky said, adding that she liked the idea of "working on something to help people."
However, she hopes to teach twirling some day.
She finds plenty to do away from the baton, helping run an after-school science club for students at the nearby Penn Alexander School, working as a peer advisor and being a member of the Chi Omega sorority.
Wykosky said that she has loved her experience twirling at Penn and enjoys the interesting comments she gets about her talent.
"It's something fun to do and it's somewhat unique," Wykosky said. "Even when I'm just flipping around, people are like, 'Wow!'"
