Hajek took this interest outside of the classroom and the school year, venturing to Russia to study for eight weeks during the summer after her sophomore year.

While attending the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn., from ninth through 12th grade as a boarder, Hajek excelled in field hockey--for which Harvard recruited her.

But after going through summer training, says Hajek, "I realized I was really ready for a change and wanted to start everything all over again with the beginning of college."

Hajek says the crew experience grew on her, and she realized quickly she wanted to commit to the team.

From what Hajek's close friends say, she has managed to shove aside her serious side at times and leave some room for fun, both away from the boathouse as well as with the crew team.

Hajek spiced up the team's daily routine on a number of occasions, including an effort in which she led a practice on ergs pulled out onto a frozen Charles River.

In addition, in February Hajek and the men's captain engineered an effort in which the two crews broke the world record for a 24-hour ergathon.

Those two events made the news-papers and the rowing magazines. But Hajek is more pleased by an antic which fortunately never attracted a newspaper photographer.

Wearing ski masks and nothing else, she and the rest of "Team Nature" conducted the "Assault on Newell" by rowing a boat from the men's boathouse to the women's--without wearing any cloths.

"We were in this contest with the men's team, and they had taken a photo shoot while naked, using there oar blades as cover," Hajek says. "We had to respond."

Venturing abroad again upon graduation, Hajek will work next year at a school in England's Dorset County as the recipient of the Bryanston Fellowship. Hajek will design and teach her own course on the history and literature of the American Frontier.

And, of course, she will coach the school's crew team.