Kristina O'Keefe and Drew Ryan
ARCATA — Forty Humboldt State student-athletes have been recognized for their academic success by being selected to receive California Collegiate Athletic Association All-Academic awards.
To qualify, student-athletes must compete in one of the 13 CCAA-sponsored sports, and must have achieved a grade point average of 3.40 or higher in a minimum of 24 semester units during the 2008-09 academic year.
Chosen as the Hal Charnofsky Memorial Award winners, presented to each institution’s top academic student-athletes, were HSU’s Kristina O’Keefe and Drew Ryan. O’Keefe was a senior basketball player who majored in Liberal Studies-Elementary Education, and Ryan was a senior soccer player majoring in Kinesiology.
Another women's basketball standout, Jennifer Enos, has been selected as one of two Lumberjacks to receive the NCAA Division II Degree Completion Award for 2009-10. Also chosen was Caitlin Klug, who completed her four-year career with the HSU softball team last spring.
The purpose of the Division II Degree-Completion Award program is to provide financial assistance to deserving student-athletes who are working towards the completion of a first baccalaureate degree. Student-athletes who have exhausted their athletics eligibility and have received athletics financial aid are eligible candidates for this award.
To date, over $2,000,000 has been given to approximately 600 deserving student-athletes. Of those student-athletes who have received the award since its inception, 93 percent have earned their undergraduate degree using this program.