ISI activities:
ISI individual member (9 years)
ISI professional member (1 year)
Freestyle 7
ISI World Championships (2002, 2006)
ISI competitions (27)
Production team captain
Group lesson instructor
Volunteer

Scholastic and community activities/achievements:
National, Slavic and French Honor Societies
People to People Ambassador program to Australia and New Zealand
Tutor
Essay, photography and Science Fair award winner
Kids Enjoy Exercise Now (KEEN) volunteer
National Geographic assistant translator

Ice skating is an important part of Alice Murphy’s life, but it shares the spotlight
with another passion: school.

An ice rink was on Alice’s priority list when she began her college search —
along with Russian, Arabic and a good international relations program.
“I have high goals for both my education and my figure skating during
college,” says Alice, who is studying international relations at Boston
University. “Just as ISI tries to bring the world together through skating, I hope
to bring the world together through my future career.”

Alice graduated with honors from Eleanor Roosevelt High School, with a 4.0
grade point average. She has been fascinated with foreign languages since
being enrolled in a French immersion school at age 5, which led to her interest
in world history and current events. She hopes to go on to a graduate degree,
perhaps law school, and work in a field that involves international travel.

A Freestyle 7 skater who has trained and participated at both Herbert Wells Ice
Rink and Bowie Ice Arena in Maryland, Alice says she plans to continue with
the ISI program as a skater and a coach. “I’m working on my Freestyle 8 test
and plan to test through FS 10 while in college, and continue teaching group
lessons,” she notes.

Christine Wilson Brinton, the figure skating director at Bowie Ice Arena, says
Alice is a prime example of good sportsmanship: “Through her volunteer work
at the ice arena, she has become a mentor to many of the younger skaters.
And instead of the rivalry you would expect, she is supportive of her competitors
and appreciates a good performance, even when it is not her own. I have
never been to an event with her where a judge, coach or spectator has not
sought us out to compliment not only her skating, but also her kindness and
support of other competitors. She has made me a better coach and set a very
high bar for her teammates.”

Stephanie Zastrow

ISI activities:
ISI individual member (13 years)
ISI professional member (1 year)
Freestyle 10
ISI World Championships (2000)
ISI competitions (26)
ISI ice shows (16)
Group and private lesson instructor
Volunteer

Scholastic and community activities/achievements:
National Honor Society
National Merit Award
AP honors scholar
State Farm Scholastic Honors Team
President’s Excellence Award
All-American Scholar
State Fair Grand Champion (Education Dept.)
University of Minnesota Northern Stars Leader
Math and English tutor

ISI began teaching Stephanie Zastrow life lessons the first time she stepped on
the ice at age 6, she recalls: “I learned to bounce back quickly after making
mistakes and to deal with my mistakes instead of leaving them to become more
difficult to handle. With the help of good coaches, ISI gave me a solid
foundation for my skating and instilled the attitude in me that skating and
working hard can and should be fun.”

Stephanie has successfully transferred those valuable lessons to other aspects of
her life, particularly academics. For instance, she learned from skating that, in
order to succeed in academics, she had to put in time and effort on homework,
prepare well for tests and fully understand all the material being covered. It was
a strategy that paid off: Stephanie graduated from Forest Lake Senior High
School first in her class of 582, with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

Stephanie’s calculus teacher, Larry Matzdorf, was impressed not only with her
academic excellence, but also her healthy, mature approach to learning.
“When things have gone wrong in class, Stephanie has never made an excuse
or blamed others,” he says. “She meets the conflict head on. She will ask questions
and rethink the concept. She realizes that understanding the concept will
be to her advantage later on down the road. She has challenged herself with the
classes she has taken.

Fewer than 30 skaters in ISI history have passed the rigorous Freestyle 10 test,
but Stephanie joined those ranks in 2004 at the age of 15. She has skated at the
White Bear Lake Sports Center for 12 years, where she has been an active ISI
participant and a group and private lesson instructor. She has been a guest skater
at multiple ice shows throughout the state of Minnesota, and is the 2007 Upper
Great Lakes regional senior ladies bronze medalist and a five-time Minnesota
state champion at the juvenile, intermediate, novice and junior levels.

Stephanie is studying mechanical engineering in the University of Minnesota
Institute of Technology honors program and wants to become an orthodontist