Florida Atlantic University’s students might recognize Stella Rubidoux for her starting position as a defender in all 18 of the women’s soccer games, totaling 1,448 minutes. They might remember her first career goal as an Owl on Aug. 15, 2024, against the University of Central Florida. 

Or she might be remembered as being one of six women’s soccer players named as the College Sports Communications’ “Academic All-District Team” for her attaining a 3.51 grade point average. 

But when Rubidoux takes off her soccer jersey after her daily practice, she heads to her labs to work on mapping software and imagery from satellites. She is seeking her Bachelor of Science in Geoscience with a focus in Geography and just began her Master’s degree in Geoscience with a focus in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems. She tells her story firsthand about how it feels to be in such a specialized major with an intense hobby. 

“I enjoy liking something that is different. It makes me feel grounded like I’m not only an athlete. I also have things outside of this,” said Rubidoux. “That’s what makes me excited, I know I have an interest, which is something I was concerned about. I was like, ‘What am I going to do without soccer?’”

Morgan McDonald, a junior midfielder on FAU’s women’s soccer team, is majoring in Business Marketing. She expressed that the team is mostly business majors with a “small handful of Biology,” and Rubidoux is the only one taking a Geosciences track. 

Out of FAU’s over 31,000 undergraduate and graduate students, only 150 students are on the Geoscience track, according to the Chair of Geosciences and Associate Professor, Tiffany Briggs.

“We often call geoscience a discovery major. It’s not oftentimes something that’s taught at the elementary through high school, in contrast to biology or chemistry,” said Briggs. “It’s important to us to have that outreach and introduce students to the field of geosciences in order for them to know it’s a major.”

Rubidoux’s academic journey is strictly online classes this semester. 

During the team’s offseason, they have 7:30 a.m. or 8 a.m. practices every weekday and are required to get to the locker room 30 minutes early. Their fall schedule is more rigorous with practices every day, followed by meetings in the afternoon to scout, watch films and prepare for games.  

After practice, Rubidoux has to change, shower and decompress her muscles, making practice take up the first half of her day. She said online classes work well for her rigorous schedule. 

“Looking at her dedication to soccer, which takes so much time and she’s being such a responsible and insightful student, that just impresses me all the way around about her. I just think that’s something I have a lot of respect for,” said Maria Fadiman, Rubidoux’s professor who teaches her “Food: Environment and Culture” course. 

In the classroom, Rubidoux takes the time to process and analyze the information that’s presented to her, Fadiman said. On the field, Rubidoux takes on a leadership role. 

“She’s a great leader in my opinion, she really has an emphasis on respect. She really wants to be somebody that people can come to and she wants to be somebody that can lead by example so she’s always been very easy to get along with,” said McDonald. 

Rubidoux had immense on-field success the past season, becoming a starter in her first year. Academically, an online method of learning has presented her with unique challenges from the absence of a professor physically teaching her the material. 

“Labs take so long, and the difficult part about them is if I get stuck, there’s not really anyone to help me. I can reach out and ask questions, but you get stuck on the silliest little things, and they can take me anywhere from one minute to solve to two hours,” said Rubidoux. 

These small details restrict her projects from running the correct way, and she has learned to allocate plenty of time to complete the labs with the uncertainty of how smoothly they will go. But she does appreciate the perks of having her own time to figure things out. 

Despite the rigorous daily schedule that Rubidoux has, she wouldn’t make any changes because she gets to do two things that she loves: athletics and academics. 

“I never really thought I would go to college without soccer. It was kind of just there, it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna keep playing.’ I’m just gonna continue my education,” said Rubidoux.   

Rubidoux grew up around nature in the rolling hills of San Diego, Calif. playing with her two older sisters, one older brother and twin sister. Her father kept himself busy outdoors by finding projects to complete on their acre of property. She said a recent task her dad took on was building a fence for their 15 chickens. 

The lifestyle that Rubidoux had as a child-centered around appreciating nature and using it as a tool to produce their own food.

“We also have a lot of fruit trees, any type of fruit, you name it. My dad has planted it because he loves trying different, exotic fruits or just weird fruits,” said Rubidoux.

The love of nature and sciences translates into her academic passions. 

Rubidoux is taking six classes, and out of her three master’s classes, one has stood out from the cluster: “Food: Environment and Culture.” She has discovered her love for learning about how the environment plays a role in all types of food.

“Everything that we eat comes from what is initially being grown, either if an animal eats it, then you have to be able to raise the feed for them, and then for the things that are growing,” said Fadiman. 

A moment this semester that stood out to Rubidoux was when Fadiman brought in a special guest speaker who owns his own chocolate company in Hawaii. He shared the chocolate that he produced with the class, giving them the opportunity to taste the various flavor notes present.

“Depending on where you buy your chocolate from, like what region of the world it has different flavor notes because of the region. He called it the ‘Terroir.’ It’s French; it means everything relating to the territory region,” said Rubidoux. 

In her class, Fadiman emphasizes creating an engaging class for the 12 students present in the graduate seminar by going on one to two field trips throughout the semester, a trend that the Department of Geosciences highly values field experiences for their students. 

Briggs described how certain classes are strictly field-based, such as “field methods,” where students are taught how to collect data in the field, and then go on a week-long field trip to apply their knowledge.

It’s clear to Fadiman that Rubidoux pays close attention to the lesson plans and assesses the information presented to her. Despite not being the first one to speak up, Fadiman described that when she does speak, it’s extremely insightful and her writing is “really beautiful,” capturing the essence of all the facts.

Once Rubidoux’s time as a collegiate athlete came to a close, she discovered, during her two years at the Air Force Academy, that a defense-related field was where she wanted to find her home base. 

“I joined the military because I wanted to serve others and with leaving, I didn’t want to give up on that idea. So my career goal is still to serve people, even though I’m not in the military,” said Rubidoux. 

In the meantime, Rubidoux continues to excel in the sport she’s been playing since she was five years old. Watching her older sister play soccer sparked her interest in following suit. Rubidoux became dedicated and worked up to the highest level of club soccer, which translated to her success in college. 

This story is in the UP’s latest print issue, Vol. 32, “Earth Day: Exploring Environmental Research and Wildlife at FAU, which can be found in the distribution boxes around the Boca Raton campus or in the Student Union Room 214.

Megan Bruinsma is the Sports Editor for the University Press. For more information regarding this or other stories email her at mbruinsma2022@fau.edu or DM her on Instagram @Megan_Bruinsma or Twitter (X) @MeganBruinsma.