Living the Life on the Field and Off the Field

Char Joslin, standout midfielder of the Harvard field hockey team.

Char Joslin, stellar defender of the Harvard women's ice hockey team.

Char Joslin, star forward of the Harvard women's lacrosse team.

Surely there must be three different persons at Harvard with that name, but the ubiquitous Char Joslin fills all those roles and many more.

The first person to be named firstteam All-Ivy in three different sports in the same year (1987-88), Joslin is also on track to becoming the first person in Harvard history to win 12--that's right, 12--varsity letters.

"She is just an amazing athlete," women's ice hockey Tri-Captain Brita Lind says. "The biggest thing that sets Char apart is that she almost has a sixth sense, an ability to read and understand the game. It's this sense that allows her to use her athletic ability to its fullest potential."

"You can get her to do anything, and she does it well," field hockey Co-Captain Denise Katsias says.

This innate athletic sense was evident at an early age. Joslin recalls her older brother Scott playing a key role in her development.

"When I was three, [he] would dress me up in his equipment, stick me in front of a box and shoot pucks at me," Joslin says.

Were their parents aware of this cruel exploitation?

"He'd give me a penny for every save I made," Joslin says. "I was getting really rich."

Such early training has more than paid off for Joslin during her varsity career as well.

"She is the best defender in women's hockey," Coach John Dooley says. "She has perhaps the best lateral skating ability of any woman hockey player I've ever seen. She is the Bobby Orr of women's hockey."

In addition to her incredible physical skills, the Dedham native possesses an extraordinary ability to devote full attention to her activities.

"She has incredible concentration at whatever she's doing," women's lacrosse Co-Captain Lisi Bailliere says. "She has amazing poise under pressure, and she always keeps her cool."

Perhaps it is this ability to concentrate that allows her not only to play three varsity sports, but also to stand out in all of them. Or maybe it's just that Joslin's so good at all of them, she just can't decide which one she likes best.

"The sport I am playing at the time is the one that is most important to me," Joslin says. "When the next one starts, then it becomes the most important."

Joslin attended the A-Camp Trials for the Olympic field hockey team in 1987 but decided that her loyalties to Harvard were too strong for her to commit herself fully in the tryouts.

"I know if I dedicated myself wholeheartedly to field hockey, I might be better than I am now, [but] I'm not sure I'd ever be able to concentrate on one sport," Joslin says.

With all the awards and honors she has received, which moment in her athletic career stands out most in her mind?

"Being elected captain of my eightgrade, all-boys' hockey team at Dedham Country Day School," Joslin says.

Despite her dominance on the playing fields and in the rink, the Kirkland House resident could hardly be considered one-dimensional. A modern European history concentrator focusing in Russian Studies, Joslin is planning to write her thesis on the history of imperial Russia.

"I find Russian history particularly fascinating because it seems that in no other period have individual personalities--the Czar [Nicholas II], Lenin, Rasputin--played such crucial roles," Joslin says.

Having taken a year off before matriculating, Joslin traveled extensively in Europe, including three weeks in the Soviet Union. She speaks French and Greek fluently and has studied German and Chinese.

"I've always been drawn to Europe--the art, the culture, the history," Joslin says.

While in Europe, Joslin worked with the British School of Archaeology on a dig in Crete and tracked turtles and monk seals in Scala, Greece. She also took some classes at L'Institut Cordon Bleu in Paris. Her culinary repertoire--heavily influenced by her travels through Greece and the Soviet Union--includes moussaka, chicken Kiev and borscht.

"I love to cook," Joslin says. "I would love to go back and do the full program to become a certified gourmet chef."

Although Joslin is not sure what career path she will follow, she is thinking of attending graduate school in London and pursuing a career in some aspect of international relations, perhaps with the Foreign Service or in journalism. Spending last summer as an intern at The New York Times in Boston sparked a greater interest in this field.

It's difficult to imagine anything unnerving Joslin, but she confesses that her journalism experience was less than ideal.

"I was so intimida because I would be interviewing people over the phone, and I don't know shorthand," Joslin says. "So I'd want to talk to them, but I didn't want to ask them to slow down, so I couldn't really keep up with them."

The Lens

A VES course that Joslin took this summer inspired a love of photography, and she considers freelance photography another possible career option.

"The absolute ideal career for me would be to become a National Geographic photographer because that would combine my interests in photography and travel," Joslin says.

The most obvious question that comes to mind is how she manages to juggle so many demands on her time.

"I'm always looking for things to do," Joslin says. "Because I'm on such a schedule, it's actually easier because I know what has to be done, and I get it done."

And Joslin has done so much already.