July 11, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -
The Big Ten Conference announced that 569 student-athletes, including 51 from Penn State, have been selected recipients of the Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award. The list includes student-athletes from every institution and 36 different sports who earned a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.7 or higher during the most recent academic year.
A total of 51 Penn State student-athletes were selected for the 2011-12 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award. Twenty-three sports were represented by Nittany Lions honorees, led by women's swimming and diving (8), women's cross country/track and field (7), men's gymnastics (5), softball (5), football (4) and women's tennis (3).
Nine of Penn State's Distinguished Scholar Award recipients earned a perfect 4.0 grade point average during the 2011-12 academic year:
- Megan Boyer (women's track and field, Human Development and Family Studies, Millersburg, Pa.);
- Christopher Cipro (men's cross country/track and field, Elementary Education, Harmony, Pa.);
- Meghan Gill (women's soccer, Accounting, State College, Pa.);
- Lindsey Graybill (women's cross country/track and field, Elementary Education, Macungie, Pa.);
- Margaret Harding (women's volleyball, Agricultural Sciences, State College, Pa.);
- Kristen Roth (women's tennis, Communication Arts and Sciences, Ardmore, Pa.),
- Colleen Shea (women's lacrosse, Mathematics, Baltimore, Md.);
- Gabrielle Shishkoff (women's swimming and diving, Psychology, Franklin, Pa.);
- Rebecca Snyder (women's swimming and diving, Elementary Education, Harmony, Pa.);
- John Urschel (football, Mathematics, Williamsville, N.Y.)
Also among Penn State's Distinguished Scholars were members of Penn State's NCAA and Big Ten Champion wrestling team and Big Ten Champion women's soccer team and field hockey teams.
In 2008, Big Ten Faculty Representatives established a conference academic recognition to supplement the Academic All-Big Ten program. Similar to the Academic All-Big Ten honor, Distinguished Scholar Award recipients must be letterwinners in at least their second academic year at their institution. However, the Distinguished Scholar Award encompasses only student-athletes with a minimum GPA of 3.7 or higher for the previous academic year, excluding summer school. The Academic All-Big Ten threshold is a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher for a student-athlete's academic career.
A complete list of Penn State's 2011-12 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award winners can be found here.
