(By Elijah McKell, special contributor)
Rory Lieberman, a sophomore at LVC, has already broken the school record in the 3,000-meter race for indoor track and is looking strong to make a push to the indoor track and field nationals. Where was he before LVC?
Lieberman’s dominance in high school gave him multiple offers from Division I programs. He eventually decided on the University of Pennsylvania’s (UPenn) prestigious Division I program for track and field.
Throughout his time at UPenn, he realized just how big a change in environment can affect a person.
“Obviously college is like a very big change, and it’s very hard for all freshmen,” Lieberman, a distance runner, said. “But I think coming from a small town where I’m from, like Danville, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia was a very big change.”
Lieberman felt that he truly lost sight of what was reasonable for him as he went outside of his comfort zone. His focus on Division I running made him forget the reason why he was going to college, which was to meet new people and get a degree to pursue his career goals.
“And I think that for me, college is a very important part of your life,” Lieberman said. “Like you make friends that will last you for the rest of your life. You meet people that you build connections with for the rest of life, both in school and just social friendships.”
Lieberman realized that UPenn was not going to work out for him for the rest of his college career. He then made the decision to transfer to Lebanon Valley College.
“Knowing that the next three years would have been tough was one of the big reasons why I decided to transfer,” Lieberman said.
With knowing what he likes and dislikes from his experience at UPenn, Lieberman started to filter through schools. Understanding that academics come first, he also wanted the feeling of a second home.
“So, I think that a combination of that feeling—the school feeling [like] home and the team feeling very open and very like something I was used to in high school—I think that’s kind of what drew me to LVC,” Lieberman said.
Even with Lieberman transferring to a Division III school, his ambitions and goals are still the same.
“I don’t see any reason why I couldn’t end up becoming a national champion in cross country,” Lieberman said. “And also, maybe some track in maybe like the 3K, 5K.”
Rory Lieberman transitioned well into LVC culture with his teammates and classmates. He is excited to see what the future holds for the rest of his college career here at LVC.