IWU’s Anderson Earns NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship

April 30, 2008

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Illinois Wesleyan senior track standout Rachel Anderson is one of 58 student-athletes nationwide who participated in winter sports to be awarded an NCAA postgraduate scholarship.

Anderson (Clinton, Ill., HS), who has a 3.79 grade-point average as a business major and plans to attend pharmacy school after graduation, is one of nine women chosen from Division III schools and one of six female indoor track athletes.

She has been the national NCAA Division III indoor 400 champion in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and was also the national outdoor 400 champion in 2006. She also ran on the first place 1,600 meter relay team in the 2008 indoor meet, which was won by Illinois Wesleyan.

The NCAA awards postgraduate scholarships of $7,500 each to 29 male and 29 female student-athletes who participated in winter sports, which included women’s archery, basketball, women's bowling, fencing, gymnastics, ice hockey, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, indoor track and field, and wrestling and the emerging women’s sports of squash, synchronized swimming, and team handball.

In addition to the winter sport honorees, the NCAA awards 118 postgraduate scholarships to student-athletes participating in fall and spring sports in which the NCAA conducts championships or participates in as an emerging sport, for a total of 174 postgraduate scholarships annually (87 for men and 87 for women).

To qualify for an NCAA postgraduate scholarship, a student-athlete must have an overall grade-point average of 3.2 (on a 4.0 scale) or its equivalent, and must have performed with distinction as a member of the varsity team in the sport in which the student-athlete was nominated.

The student-athlete must have behaved, both on and off the field, in a manner that has brought credit to the student-athlete, the institution and intercollegiate athletics. The student-athlete also must intend to continue academic work beyond the baccalaureate degree as a full-time or part-time graduate student.

Nominations are made by each school’s faculty athletics representatives and selections are made three times each academic year. Candidates are screened by seven regional selection committees and the award recipients are selected by the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Committee.

CONTACT: Stew Salowitz, 309-556-3206