FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 17, 2006
Contact: Ralph Newell, (703) 385-2981, ext. 3013
Hilary Hurd Anyaso, (703) 385-2981, ext. 3044
FAIRFAX, VA.
—
Diverse: Issues
In Higher Education magazine
has chosen Sarah Lowe, a 5’7” point guard from the University of Florida women’s basketball team, as its female
Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar of the Year.
It is her
performance on and off the court that led Diverse: Issues In Higher Education editors to select Lowe as its female Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports
Scholar of the Year for best exemplifying the high standards of scholarship,
athleticism and humanitarianism. Lowe will be featured in the April 6, 2006, edition of Diverse:
Issues In Higher Education, along with the male Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports
Scholar of the Year.
Lowe, a political
science and Spanish double major with a minor in criminology, has an overall
grade point average of 3.88 — rising to 4.0 in upper division courses. She’s
been on the Dean’s List since her freshman year and on the President’s List, an
honor reserved for students who combine high academic achievement with
extracurricular excellence, for four of the last six semesters. Lowe volunteers
with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Gainesville, was active in campus voter
registration efforts in 2004 as part of the nonpartisan America Coming Together
campaign and, in 2005, was a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship.
In 1992, Black Issues In Higher Education magazine, now Diverse, established the Sports Scholars Awards to honor
undergraduate students of color who exemplify the standards set by tennis great
Arthur Ashe Jr.
A scholar
and athlete, Ashe sought to expand opportunities for young people. Each year Diverse:
Issues In Higher Education
invites every postsecondary institution in the country to participate in this
awards program by nominating their outstanding sports scholars. In addition to
their athletic ability, students named Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholars must
exhibit academic excellence as well as community activism. To be included,
students have to compete in an intercollegiate sport; maintain a cumulative
grade-point average of at least 3.2; and be active on their campuses or in
their communities. This year approximately 600 male and female student-athletes
from across the country were nominated.
Past female
recipients of the award have included the University
of Tennessee’s Kara Lawson, who now
plays for the WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs (2003), and Santa
Clara University’s
Danielle Slaton who was the
youngest member of the U.S. National Soccer Team that won a silver medal in the
2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia (2001).
Diverse: Issues In Higher Education is the nation’s only news magazine
dedicated exclusively to diversity issues in higher education. Visit
www.diverseeducation.com.
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