This feature originally appeared in the 2022 Winter edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.




For most college students, an internship is a rite of passage – a way of gaining valuable experience in a chosen field prior to entering the work force. That holds true for Cal junior women's basketball player Evelien Lutje Schipholt. 
 
But unlike most, Lutje Schipholt's internship doesn't include coffee runs, answering phone calls, or any of the other busywork that typically comes with the title of "intern." Instead, the Bears' forward spends most of her free time off the court working on larger projects in a campus lab, all while balancing the rigors and demands of an NCAA student-athlete.  
 
"Lab environments can be very challenging to work in as an undergraduate," said Dr. Stephanie See, Lutje Schipholt's supervisor and mentor at the Rapé Lab, part of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) at UC Berkeley. "Berkeley is no exception to that rule. I think she navigates that space very gracefully. She isn't someone that's ever in someone's way. She just fits right in to the space and the intellectual fabric really well."
 
Lutje Schipholt went after her internship with the same tenacity she shows when grabbing a rebound in a crowded key during a game. The native of the Netherlands is close to declaring molecular and cell biology as her major, and she knew she needed to some practical experience on her resume. So last winter, she attended one of former Cal assistant coach April Phillips' "Career Connection" meetings that were designed to connect members of the women's basketball team with people who work in a field that interests the player. They'd meet for a quick speed-dating type of informational interview. 
 
It was in one of these meetings that Lutje Schipholt met Dr. Julia Schaletzky and her husband, Dr. Michael Rapé, who runs the Rapé Lab on campus. The trio discussed Lutje Schipholt's interest in their work, with Schaletzky putting her in touch with See. 
 
See and Lutje Schipholt hit if off instantly.  
 
"She reached out right when I started at Berkeley," See recalled, who has been at UC Berkeley for over six months. "From my perspective I really wanted to work with an undergraduate that was really excited and motivated to start a scientific project. Something that really struck me about her was how she was really determined, and she was very honest about her commitments, which I really appreciated." 
 
Time commitments can be the biggest hurdle for most student-athletes, as the demands of their course load and sport take precedence. For Lutje Schipholt, that goes without saying.
 
"We talked a lot about my time commitment over the spring and summer," Lutje Schipholt said. "We both entered this internship knowing I was going to have to be flexible, and she was going to have to be flexible with me because of my basketball time commitments." 
 
See added, "For me, the main ingredient is for a student to be really passionate. If that's there, we can work with everything else. She also made it clear she was willing to work on weekends and outside of normal business hours. I thought 'You know what, I think this could be a good match. I'm new, she's sort of new to this, and it could be really fun.' And once she started, it was really clear that this was a good match." 
 
A typical day for Lutje Schipholt looks something like this: wake up in time for 8 a.m. classes then head to the lab to begin prep on her experiments. In the lab, Lutje Schipholt oversees cloning and tissue/cell culture. Her projects are building blocks for larger projects in the lab. 
 
Her morning lab session usually lasts a few hours. From there, she sprints to Haas Pavilion for treatment and to get ready for practice. After practice, it's time for a quick meal and then back to the lab to wrap up what she was working on that day.  
 
"When she started, I worked with her personally every moment she was in the lab," See said. "Because she was coming in with no experience, she has never held a pipette (a laboratory instrument used to measure out or transfer small quantities of liquid) before. Every aspect of the job was really foreign. For the first couple of months, we were there together for as many hours as she could come during normal office hours. But I quickly realized she's more independent. She understands what the goals are for each experiment. That's when I was really able to relax and told her she could come in whenever she wants."
 
"We are working towards certain experiments that Steph is going to do," Lutje Schipholt said. "Cloning is something that has a lot of different steps. But that actually makes it easier for me because I can break them up throughout the week. So I can do two experiments in the morning, and after that I can leave it and sometimes stuff has to grow overnight, so I come back the next day and finish it up. That's why cloning is easy for me to do right now with its flexibility." 
 
With all that she has learned in a short amount of time, the question comes up: Is she ever on the free throw line thinking about her cell cultures, or in the lab thinking about her jump shot? 
 
"I would say basketball is still the biggest part of my life," Lutje Schipholt said. "Sometimes I am in lab going over pregame notes in my head. In games, I don't think about my little cells – maybe in practice when I'm on the side my mind will drift. But mainly right now it's when I'm in the lab I'm thinking about basketball."  
 
Yes, she does go into the lab on gamedays. "Gamedays don't really feel very different from other days," she said. "But on gamedays, I tend to be more relaxed.  I find labs very relaxing. It's kind of calm - me and the cells, me and my DNA".  
 
Lutje Schipholt hopes to continue working at the MCB labs at Berkeley as long as she is playing basketball. As for her post-graduation plans, she says she's the type of person who takes it one day at a time. She has discussed going to graduate school after her basketball career is over, and perhaps eventually getting her Ph.D., but she is adamant that she is not in a rush to do either.
 
"I feel like me working in this lab right now really makes me feel like I belong in this field," Lutje Schipholt said. "As a student-athlete, it sometimes feels like we're not students enough. Science is a very, very hard field, and when I'm in the lab and I do my thing and I do it well, it makes me feel like I can do this. I'm worthy to be here and I belong here - which is really something that pulls me through the majority of the busy days.  It's really a strong sense of belonging."