When Suzanne Maddamma was a freshman at Chartiers Valley High School, she was handed a flier touting the proposed start of a rowing club at the school.

"I had no idea what it was," said Maddamma, a Scott resident. "I just wanted to look into it because I thought it would be kind of cool to try."

The club, the idea of a student who had just moved into the school district and merely wanted to start a new organization, would end up revolutionizing Maddamma's life.

In less than four years, rowing has afforded Maddamma a chance to travel around the world to represent her country -- and enable her to get a free college education.

Maddamma signed with the University of Michigan and will row for the Wolverines this school year.

She just returned from the FISA World Rowing Junior Championships, where she spent two weeks in Beijing, China, as part of USA Rowing's team.

She reached the semifinals of the single sculls.

"It's a great feeling representing your country," Maddamma said of the competition in China. "It was a great experience."

Maddamma also competed in the 2006 FISA world junior championships in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

She earned her spot on the U.S. roster by winning both finals of the single sculls at the 2007 Junior National Team Trials in June. Her best time was 8:08.57 at West Windsor, N.J.

She won the women's single sculls at the 2007 USRowing Junior National Team trials and won gold in the women's single sculls at the 2007 USRowing Youth National Championships. She also was runner-up in the women's single sculls at the 2006 USRowing Youth National Championships.

Not a bad resume for someone who had never rowed and had played only soccer before high school.

"When I got started, for a year I was in bigger boats," Maddamma said. "My sophomore year, I got more serious and I started developing skills more and I started to get faster, so they put me on single.

"I got good results, so I stuck with that the next three years."

Maddamma joined the Three Rivers Rowing Association for two years and now competes with the Steel City Rowing Club. She said she practices three times a day, working indoors and on dry land in the winter.

While rowing can be excruciating work, Maddamma said she actually finds it relaxing.

"It takes my mind off everything," she said. "It's so relaxing being on the water. And it keeps me in shape, which is nice. I just like to be competitive."

While she is already competing at an international level, Maddamma got a small taste of the ultimate because the Olympics will be in China a year from now. That left her leaving with some impressions of the world's most populous nation.

"It was nice," she said, "but there's so much pollution. They're going to have their hands full next year.

"There was construction everywhere; they're just getting ready for next year. But they did a really nice job. It was a good trial run for next year."

Maddamma chose Michigan for a simple reason.

"They offered me a full scholarship for rowing," she said, later adding, "They were the first ones to come up to me. I went on a college visit and decided I really liked it and stuck with it."

Maddamma intends to major in biology/pre-medicine.