Senior swimmer Kelly McGowan is profiling some of UIC's senior student-athletes. This is the first edition of UIC Senior Spotlight.

Annette Lesnicki is a member of the UIC Women's Swim and Dive Team majoring in Accounting and minoring in Management Information Systems (MIS). Lesnicki was on the swim team all four years and just finished her swimming career in February. She will be graduating next month with her Bachelor's Degree and attending graduate school to get her Masters in Accounting next year at UIC. She will be taking her CPA Exams next summer between school and permanent employment.
 
Lesnicki has had one job at the university and two internships during her college career. She has been working within the UIC Athletic Department for three years under Bill Thomas – the Senior Associate Athletic Director of Business Operations/Finance. Her first internship two summers ago was working at Chicago's Perl Mortgage as an Executive Assistant for Lending Officer. Last summer, she interned with TransUnion as an International Accountant – also in Chicago.
 
Lesnicki also accepted an offer to intern at Deloitte this summer in the Chicago office. This internship will last for about three months before she starts up school again in the fall. She hopes to get a full-time position with Deloitte after she graduates with her Masters next year.
 
Not only has Lesnicki excelled in the pool and with work experience, but is also very involved on campus. She has been a part of SAAC for two years, including being the SAAC Secretary this year. Lesnicki is also on the Horizon League SAAC Board, which only has two student-athlete representatives from each school in the whole conference. Lesnicki also helps with volunteering for SPARK missions and is a member of the Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) on campus where she was the Vice President of Philanthropy last semester, planning volunteer events for the group. She was also a part of the Accounting Club on campus for one year.
 
Her athletic career highlight at UIC was when both the Women's and Men's Swim and Dive teams placed third at conference in 2017 – the highest both teams had placed in many years. Lesnicki's academic career highlight is "getting good enough grades to get these internship experiences and networking with the Business Professors at UIC because they have been very helpful". Speaking of her professors, Lesnicki found Accounting 435 (Audit) with Professor Judd to be the most helpful class for her business career, "he made the class interesting and enjoyable, and the material we learned is exactly what I want to do with my job".
 
When asked what she will miss most about UIC, Lesnicki responded with "I will miss my lovely friends and teammates". Luckily, she has one more year here as she attends graduate school so she doesn't have to leave her friends quite yet. Lesnicki would like to thank her current boss, Bill Thomas, "for giving me the opportunity to work with him and providing me with the skills and knowledge needed in the business world".