Last year's collection of awarded students pose on Student-Athlete Day
The College of Staten Island Office of Intercollegiate Athletics together with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee recently doled out 89 citations for its SAAC/Athletic Direcor Honor Roll, and the recipients will be honored at part of Student-Athlete Day at the College on Thursday at 2pm in the Sports & Recreation Center Gymnasium. Held each year, Student-Athlete Day is done in cooperation with the same national initiative brought forward by the National Consortium of Academics in Sport, which honors those who marry the ideals of achievement both on the field and in the classroom.
CSI held it’s first-ever Student-Athlete Day last April to rousing success, as CSI Athletic Director Vernon Mummert stood side-by-side with President Dr. Tomas Morales and Vice-President for Student affairs Dr. Ramona Brown, in presenting the awarded with their certificates of achievement in front of their peers, parents, and campus faculty and staff. The same, hour-long, ceremony is expected this year on the gymnasium’s main competition floor.
The Honor Roll, unique to the Athletics program at CSI was the brainchild of the CSI Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and Mummert, who both wanted to draw attention to the tremendous academic achievements of its student-athletes at the exclusive commuter campus, as scholar athletes account for over 44% of the overall student-athlete body. The Honor Roll citations are collected by Katie Arcuri, CSI’s Assistant Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Services.
“Many times our student-athletes have to balance part-time and full-time jobs with full academic class loads, varsity team commitments, and family responsibilities at home,” Mummert said. “The institutional recognition shows these young men and women that we are taking notice, and it will hopefully inspire them to greater heights of academic achievement and athletic performance.”
The 89 total athletes are a cross section of CSI’s 13 intercollegiate sports and cheerleading program. CSI boasted 201 total student-athletes in 2010-11, meaning that 44.3% of the student-athlete body is being honored, a staggering number. Of the 89 honored, 69 are carrying overall GPA’s over a 3.0 (34%), while a select 23 have an overall GPA of over a 3.5 GPA.
“It speaks volumes about the balance exhibited by our athletes and the tremendous academic support they receive on campus,” Mummert said.
The College of Staten Island Office of Intercollegiate Athletics does its part in aiding the cause. Working primarily through Arcuri, student-athletes are awarded priority registration, which allows them to manage their class schedule with their rigorous practice, personal workout, and intercollegiate schedule routines, and are offered academic advisement within Athletics offices to guide their academic path. Along the way, the office solicits mid-semester checks on student-athletes and offer counseling and peer tutor opportunities for at-risk students.
“The student-athletes continue to excel in the classroom as the number of honor roll students grow each semester,” said Arcuri. “It is a deserving achievement for them to be honored each semester with the citation, and this is our chance to put those deserving students on display.”
Men’s Swimming sees the most honorees on the Honor Roll list, boasting 11 student-athletes to the ledger. Cheerleading follows with 10 honorees, followed by 9 each from Men’s and Women’s Soccer. CSI also awards a Team GPA Award given at its annual awards banquet, won in 2011 by Men’s Cross-Country with a 3.43 collective GPA.
Seven special student-athletes boasted perfect 4.0 GPA’s last semester, including: Ilona Stoyko (Swimming/Tennis), Lisa LaManna (Volleyball/Cross-Country, graduated), Raechel Strobel (Softball, graduated), Qing Li (Tennis, graduated), Lauren Neglia (soccer), Olivia Tierno (Basketball), and Tomasz Hajbert (Swimming). The complete list of scholar-athletes is available here.
