How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
For an athlete on an NYU sports team, academics always come first. Each season, the University Athletic Association recognizes the scholastic talents of a select group of UAA athletes who have earned a 3.30 cumulative grade point average or higher and have completed at least one full year of college.
This season, 84 Violets earned UAA All-Academic recognition for the 2009-10 winter season. NYU placed third overall in the eight team conference. University of Chicago had the most student-athletes recognized by the UAA with 100, and Washington University in St. Louis had 91. The Violets beat out Emory University, who had 79 recipients.
The men's fencing team and the women's swimming and diving team had the most students honored by the conference with 16 and 22, respectively.
The UAA also recognized 84 Violets for the 2008-09 season.
Andrew King, a junior in the Leonard N. Stern School of Business majoring in finance and marketing, is captain of NYU's men's swimming team and was honored by the conference both last season and this season.
"I try to work hard in the pool and in the classroom," King said.
Jeffrey Bernstein, the assistant athletic director for sports information at NYU, was proud of the consistency and diligence that athletes at NYU demonstrate.
"We go by the credo that athletics and academics are not mutually exclusive," said Bernstein, now in his 11th year at NYU. "They don't miss class to go to practice, and their academics are foremost in importance."
As an NCAA Division III school, NYU cannot offer athletic scholarships to student-athletes. Instead, athletes come to NYU for the university's strong academic reputation. Unlike some schools, NYU does not relax its tough admission standards for athletes.
Junior Emily Foshag, an accounting major in Stern, and a star on the women's basketball team was also recognized last year for her strong academic record. Foshag and sophomore Cara Bonito were the two members of the women's basketball team awarded by the conference.
"I think the fact that athletes like me continually buy into the conference's commitment to both academics and athletics is a testament to the quality of the coaches and athletics support staff at NYU," Foshag said. "To be a part of that tradition is an honor."
