Impact Of A Scholarship: Christine Knauss

Maryland field hockey lives by the slogan “Best of The Best”. This is a well-earned mantra as since the team's inception in 1974, the Terps have become one of the most consistent winners in collegiate field hockey, earning a trip to 20 national semifinals and bringing home eight national championships. 

It was exactly this idea of being “the best” that brought Christine Knauss to Maryland. While attending a team camp at Duke University, Knauss was reminded of Maryland’s 2005 National Championship victory over the Blue Devils and became focused on playing for the Terps. 

“I just remember thinking that I wanted to be a part of the best team in the country,” Knauss recounted. “I wanted to be the best player that I could be and I knew that being surrounded by the best coaches and teammates would make me that.”

While it was the program's past that made such an impact on Knauss attending Maryland, she certainly did her part in continuing the Terps legacy. A key member of back-to-back National Championship winning teams in 2010 and 2011, Knauss helped cement Maryland as one of the best programs in NCAA history. In her five years with the Terps, Knauss never missed an NCAA Final Four. Now, years later, Knauss looks back on those moments fondly.

“Just that feeling of camaraderie and working through the challenges together and being successful, I'll never forget that. It's something that most people will never get to experience and I know that, so it's really special to me.” said Knauss.

For all the success Knauss found on the field, she was equally impressive in the classroom. A chemistry and biology double major, Knauss looks back at her time as a student-athlete and is both grateful and proud of the scholarships that gave her so many opportunities.

“I think fundamentally, [the scholarship] shows investment in you. And I think that kind of frames your mindset for coming in, the fact that the coaches and Maryland as a university believe in you enough to financially support you to be here” said Knauss.

Knauss didn’t just succeed in the classroom, she also discovered her passion for environmental science research. While taking a course in scientific writing during her junior year, Knauss had to do a project on whether or not her “office” should use paper or plastic cups. While collecting research for the assignment, Knauss discovered the issues surrounding plastic pollution in the environment and became instantly intrigued by studying potential problems it could cause.

“From that assignment on, I decided, ‘This is what I want to work on, I want to go to grad school to do something with this,’” Knauss said. “So then I spent the rest of my undergrad years, working towards that, and knowing that I wanted to go to grad school for it.”

Knauss has gone on to achieve the goals she set forth in that scientific writing course, spending six years at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, UMCES for short, working towards her PHD. A true Terp and Lutherville, Maryland native, Knauss designed her own PHD project, centered around a truly chesapeake bay topic—oysters. 

“I was studying the impacts of microplastics on oysters, particularly oyster larvae … there's so much money and research and efforts going into repopulating the Chesapeake Bay oyster population,” stated Knauss. “I was wondering if microplastics needed to be something that we should think about in terms of where we put those new oyster beds where we put our oysters and things like that.”

Knauss graduated and defended her dissertation last August, and has spent the last year as a postdoctoral at the UMCES Horn Point Lab. There, she is developing methods that can better detect and identify microplastics in environmental samples. She is also a key figure in building an international network for plastic pollution researchers in an effort to better share and streamline research.

Although it's been years since Knauss took the field as a player, she has recently begun a new chapter in her field hockey journey, as a coach. Knauss is currently an assistant coach at Notre Prep, near Baltimore, and has enjoyed getting the chance to be back around the sport.

“It feels like home just to be back playing the game,” said Knauss. “I see a lot of my old teammates, all the time, because some of the girls that I coach play for their club teams, and I see them in tournaments. It's been really nice to kind of be back in the family, consistently seeing them all the time.”

Knauss hasn’t given up on her own athletics achievements either, as she is currently training for the Baltimore marathon and then will look towards completing a 34 mile ultra-marathon in March.

While Knauss is someone who views hard work as an opportunity rather than a challenge, she will always be thankful for the donors that helped her follow her dreams.

“I would just like to say thank you. Scholarships are a trust in me and the other athletes that we are important enough, that we are good enough and that we will work hard. They're very important, so thank you,” Knauss said.