Ian Zalewski has made a name for himself as a successful track and cross country athlete at Verona High School, but his passions and talents extend beyond running. While Zalewski is excited to begin his Division I athletic career at Lehigh University, he’s equally excited to delve into the field of engineering.
Zalewski will be majoring in computer engineering and integrated business engineering. Zalewski says that while these majors are different, there are a number of similarities: Computer engineering deals mainly with the hardware aspect of engineering and how computer chips themselves work, while integrated business engineering prepares people for all the aspects of running a business such as product development, design and manufacturing.
To Zalewski, computer engineering and integrated business engineering naturally merge and will give him the opportunity to start his own company or be a valuable asset to another company after he graduates. For VHS students interested in following in a similar direction, Zalewski recommends taking computer science classes with Mr. Wertz and Ms. Russell since “they’re great teachers that will really get you prepared.” Zalewski asserts that getting a head start is of vital importance and that any skills you can learn, whether programming or time management, will help alleviate the stress load.
Zalewski’s interest in both computer engineering and integrated business engineering can be traced back to the beginning of his high school career. For a while he was debating between computer science and computer engineering. Regarding the differences between the two, Zalewski states that “computer science is more theoretical and a lot more math-based” while computer engineering is “much more hands-on with the hardware aspect.” Zalewski ultimately decided upon computer engineering and chose integrated business engineering as his second major because he thought it sounded like a great opportunity to learn the business side of it while also combining it with his love of computers.
As further preparation during his senior year, Zalewski took advantage of Montclair State University’s Dual Enrollment Program for VHS. He was able to adjust his schedule to manage classes at both schools. While Zalewski was limited to a single semester at Montclair State, he was still able to use his time wisely and take linear algebra, which is a requirement for a lot of engineering majors. He also took programming and stats courses while attending. Zalewski felt that in many ways the program made it easier for him to manage his time and felt that the AP classes he took at VHS such as AP Chemistry really prepared him well for his college classes. “Dr. Wehbeh will really whip you into shape,” he says.
While Zalewski is excited to further his academic career at Lehigh, he also looks forward to continuing track and field. Zalewski first took an interest in running when he was in 7th grade. He reflects upon the joy he felt running the timed mile in gym class, which really sparked his interest in the sport. “I was one of the kids that really took it seriously,” he recalls. From ages 5 to 15, Zalewski played soccer and, even at a young age, he enjoyed the grueling shuttle runs.
During his freshman year of high school, Zalewski participated in soccer in the fall and track during the winter and spring. But he says that it was his successful start in spring track that got him thinking, “Hey, maybe track is the thing I want to do.” Zalewski quit soccer during his sophomore year, and switched to cross country. He has made running his primary focus since.
Zalewski has exceeded expectations in both track and cross country, even beating the record of former VHS student, Dave Oster that was set back in 2010. But it hasn’t always been easy. He had a lot of ups and downs with injuries and has been taken out of the sport for months because of said injuries. “Those times were really rough,” he says. Zalewski believes that most of the injuries were a byproduct of pushing too hard. However, Zalewski has learned to trust his training, and trust the process under the positive assumption that he will be okay, which has helped him persevere regardless.
As a result of his hard work and dedication to training, Zalewski qualified for both the Nike and New Balance Nationals back in early May when he ran a 4:11 mile. He was not able to go to Nike Nationals because he had the Meet of Champions that same day. He did compete at the New Balance Nationals at the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday, June 15, but had a time of 4:18.68. (The first place time was a blistering 3:59.00.)
It is clear Zalewski’s hard work and talent in both computer engineering and running have given him opportunities to prosper regardless of the route he chooses. In the future, He envisions himself working at either AMD or Nvidia, companies that make advanced computer chips, or even starting his own company one day. As far as running goes, Zalewski is less certain about what that will look like after college but he’s ready to “roll with the punches and see where life takes me.”
“What’s Next” is a series of profiles about what members of each Verona High School class do after graduation. MyVeronaNJ has been publishing the series since 2010 and you can read all of them here. Robert Donohue will graduate Verona High School with the Class of 2024. This story is part of his participation in VHS’ Senior Capstone project.
