After pressing play on her “Electric Feel” Pandora station, Catherine Kemp, Instructor in Biology, takes a boat out on the water and begins her workout, practicing technique drills to increase her range of motion. After rowing, she takes a nap with her dog, Wootles.
For Kemp, who joined Andover’s faculty this past fall and teaches Biology 100 and Biology 580, coaches Girls Crew and is a House Counselor in Alumni House, both coaching and rowing crew have been important aspects of her life since she started rowing in 1995.
“I’ve loved every place I’ve rowed for… unique [reasons]. In Sacramento, we rowed past a bakery that made cookies at 5 a.m., and the scent drifting across the water as we rowed in the darkness was magical… Here [in] Andover, the water is the flattest I’ve ever seen, which is great for rowing,” wrote Kemp in an email to The Phillipian.
She takes the boat out on the water and begins her workout, practicing technique drills to increase her range of motion. Kemp’s love for rowing has stemmed from various motivations over the years.
“When I was younger, I was externally driven by competition against others, and I had a huge chip on my shoulder. It was so satisfying to put in work and see myself accomplishing things I’d never thought I could do,” she said.
Although her involvement with crew has shifted toward being an official and a coach, Kemp says that the sport remains a strong positive force for her.
“Currently, [crew] is a mixture of social community through my alumni work and officiating and this comforting athletic fallback whenever I just need something that makes me feel competent,” said Kemp. “In coaching, my happiness is when my athletes find satisfaction, which is unique for each person. It’s about figuring out what the individual needs to meet her goals and improve.”
Kemp’s experience with rowing crew, however, has not always been easy.
“[Before college,] I’d rowed a few months at an established club then my family moved, and my new school didn’t have crew until my junior year… We started with one manky old boat and a coach standing on shore, no docks, no boathouse, nothing like that! In the summers, I used an abandoned boathouse and taught myself to row a single. I was really passionate about the sport but hadn’t had access to tons of resources,” she said.
It was not until her time in college at Dartmouth, which she attended from 1998 to 2002, that Kemp was able to fully pursue crew.
“The chance to focus on it full-time – although I wasn’t recruited, things worked out pretty well,” she continued.
In addition to allowing her to embrace rowing completely, Kemp’s years at Dartmouth were also impactful academically and intellectually.
Kemp initially thought she would major in Chinese because she felt discouraged from sciences in high school. She became disillusioned with the life of a business worker after working as a receptionist at a airplane tire retread factory following her freshman year.
“All I could envision was some life where I’d have to wear panty hose every day to work in a business environment,” she said. Since this idea was unappealing to her, Kemp decided she needed to try something new.
Despite her experiences with science in high school, Kemp decided to give the subject another try. “I told myself I could take one science class, and if it went well I would switch majors,” she said.
Flipping through her college course catalogue, she found an interesting option – ecology classes, where she discovered that she would spend her time not working at a desk, but chasing frogs outside at midnight.
After exploring ecology a little more, Kemp eventually graduated from Dartmouth with an A.B. in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology. After that, she proceeded to earn her Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California-Davis.
At Andover, Kemp’s role as a coach and instructor has allowed her to combine her two passions of crew and biology. In addition to coaching, teaching and serving as a house counselor, Kemp enjoys spending time with her family, running and baking.
