The UCSD athletics department honored several of its outstanding academics at a luncheon Tuesday to celebrate National Student-Athlete Day.
Everett Schroeter, Megan Mendoza, Andrew Anfora, Samara Silverman, Steve Martin, Elizabeth Hughes, Vladimir Djapic, Kris Chiles, Lyndsey Tadlock, Yukio King and Laura Santerre each received recognition. These 11 student-athletes represent five colleges, 11 teams and nine majors.
The National Consortium for Academics and Sports, the Center for the Study of Sport in Society and the National Collegiate Athletic Association also supported the event.
“”The overall student-athlete at UCSD is much more involved in a lot of varied activities,”” said Assistant Athletic Director Wendy Taylor May, who organized the luncheon.
Athletics Director Earl Edwards agreed in his statements concerning the nature of the festivities.
“”The day is designed to honor student-athletes who have achieved excellence in academics and athletics, while having many significant contributions to the community and the school as a whole,”” he said.
Edwards’ assertion was backed by the impressive list of community service activities performed by the award recipients, who have volunteered at food banks, helped build homes, mentored, tutored, and worked with other charity programs.
While the assembled dignitaries — which included Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Joseph Watson, college deans, college staff and athletics administration — were impressed with the student-athletes, the athletes were quick to praise the cooperation of many different groups that made their success possible.
“”I thought the important part was the fact that there were faculty here with the coaches,”” said junior soccer player Chiles — a molecular biology major with a 3.84 grade point average.
Senior volleyball player Santerre, a psychology major with a 3.90 GPA, agreed that UCSD’s athletics program is something special because of the way unity is developed through participation
“”It really is an athletic community here,”” she said. “”The people who come and play here at UCSD come because they love the sport that they’re playing and they love competing and working with a group of people toward challenging goals. I think that’s something that the athletes take to the other parts of their lives.””
Already having graduated and gone to work, Djapic definitely takes his Triton athletic experience — and his doctorate degree in electrical engineering — toward challenging goals in work. He now works for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center of San Diego as a design engineer.
Student-athletes such as Djapic refute the stereotype of athletes not being able to carry their weight academically.
“”The old prejudice about athletes not being so good at academics is not necessarily true,”” said senior bioengineering major Schroeter, who represented the men’s tennis team.
Those present seemed proud of their accomplishments, but also looked forward to even more growth and development of high-quality student-athletes.
“”I think it’s especially important now that the [student initiated athletic fee referendum] passed. The administration has to work with student-athletes and the athletic department a lot more,”” said Mendoza, a sophomore biological anthropology major from the women’s soccer team. “”It’s going to be good.””
In closing, Edwards invoked a slogan of the UCSD athletics department as a model for the program: “”A proud history of academic and athletic excellence.””