Leader in action: Shooting for the stars

Casia Steinhaus balances research in astrophysics and machine learning with national-championship-level shooting

When most people picture a college student, they may not imagine someone balancing national rifle competitions and coding satellite data to detect oil in oceans.

But then again, Casia Steinhaus is not like most people.

Casia grew up on a farm outside of Devils Lake, N.D., where she spent her days caring for alpacas and honing her skills in 4-H shooting sports.

She began competitive shooting at age 8 and qualified for the Junior Olympics by age 12. Despite this success outside of the classroom, Casia felt academically unchallenged in high school.

“We didn’t have a lot of advanced classes, so I was really bored,” she said. That boredom became motivation — she enrolled in college courses early and earned her associate’s degree by the time she was 17.

Now a student in the UND Honors program and a double major in physics and math, Casia balances a 21-credit semester with research in astrophysics and machine learning, elite-level shooting and national scholarships that could one day take her to Oxford, Cambridge or NASA.

Read and watch more about Casia and her successful career at UND.