NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vanderbilt student-athletes Abby Burke and Lucas Mowery have been selected Brad Davis SEC Community Service Award winners, it was announced by the league office on Thursday. Both will receive a $5,000 post-graduate scholarship provided by the SEC and are now eligible to be named the male and female Community Service Leaders of the Year.
Burke — a swimmer who originally hails from Winter Park, Florida — has participated in numerous community service activities in her time as a Commodore including volunteering at the Cross Point Church in Nashville, with the Vanderbilt Project Safe Center and in Voter Registration Day activities in 2020. She has also taken part in volunteer events at Lake Buena Vista Elementary School, helps the Nashville Dolphins swim team and contributed to the Vanderbilt Dance Marathon during her time in school.
For those efforts, Burke was named to the 2021-22 SEC Swimming and Diving Community Service Team in February.
A four-year letter winner, she ended her collegiate career ranked third on Vandy’s all-time performer list in the 500 free while standing among the top 10 in school history in five other events (100 free, 200 free, 100 back, 100 fly and 100 IM). After making the 2018-19 First-Year Academic Honor Roll, she has been named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll each of the last three seasons as well.
Mowery earned four letters competing for the Dores’ men’s cross country team, and during that time he participated in the V Squared engineering mentorship program, served as a student teacher for Vanderbilt Student Volunteers for Science and was a member of the Engineers Without Borders group that aims to use sustainable projects to empower developing communities around the world. In addition to helping host numerous events with local public schools in Nashville each year, he also contributed to the founding of the Poncy Track Club shoe drive at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic while also participating in an Orange County COVID-19 food drive.
The Costa Mesa, California, resident has been named a first-team Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar each of the last three years while also making the SEC Academic Honor Roll. A two-time team captain, Mowery was voted the Commodores’ most improved men’s runner following the conclusion of his sophomore season before completing the course at the SEC Championships his junior year despite running with a partially torn Achilles tendon.
The league’s Community Service Leaders of the Year will be announced later this month, with the individuals chosen for those honors set to earn a $10,000 post-graduate scholarship from the league.
The SEC Community Service Post-Graduate Scholarship is named for former associate commissioner Brad Davis, who succumbed to cancer on March 2, 2006. He had been a member of the SEC staff since 1988, first serving as an assistant commissioner until 1994 when he was promoted to associate commissioner.
