May 1, 2014
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Vanderbilt Athletics has selected football player Fitz Lassing and women’ soccer standout Kendra Hendrix as its top candidates for the Southeastern Conference’s prestigious H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship.
The H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship has been presented by the SEC since 1986 to the league’s top male and female scholar-athletes. The 2014 McWhorter Award recipients will be announced May 6 at the league’s spring banquet in Destin, Fla.
Highlights of Vanderbilt’s nominees include:
Fitz Lassing, Football
• Economics major who graduated in December 2013 Minors in Managerial Studies-Corporate Strategy
• Four-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll · Compiled brilliant 3.903 grade point average
• One of 10 SEC recipients of Hampshire Honor Society (National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame (NFF) and one of seven nominees from SEC for NFF’s prestigious National Scholar-Athlete Award
• Two-time recipient of the National Scholar-Athlete team award for highest GPA
• Two-year member of squad’s Leadership Council, which serves as a liaison between players and coaches resolving internal issues, gaining his position on the council by team vote
• Member of the coveted Dean’s List each semester during his collegiate career
• Member of Omicron Delta Epsilon, a national economic honors society, Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honors society and was a National Merit finalist in 2010
• Named 2013 Bickerstaff/Pace University Scholar-Athlete Award by the Middle Tennessee chapter of NFF
• Multi-year starter at fullback and a four-year letterwinner during a history-making run for the Commodore football program that included three consecutive postseason bowl appearances and back-to-back 9-win seasons
• Active member of Fellowship of Christian Athletes and has taken mission trips with his church to New Orleans, Wisconsin and eastern Kentucky to help impoverished neighborhoods
Kendra Hendrix, Women’s Soccer
• Graduated in Spring 2014 in Public Policy, Community Sustainability
• Earned impressive 3.226 grade point average
• Began life in a lower-income, urban neighborhood and developed into one of school’s finest examples of the student-athlete best combining athletic, academics and service achievement
• Robert Harvey Scholarship recipient and studied abroad in Denmark in the summer of 2013
• Named to SEC Academic Honor Roll, three-year letter winner, named team’s Most Improved Player and nominated as the school’s outstanding student-athlete by the Black Student Alliance
• Active in community service, volunteering time and talents to a wide array of organizations and projects
• Member of the Alpha Phi Omega Community Service fraternity, offering assistance to organizations that confront homelessness and the impoverished
• Twice was member and site leader of Alternative Winter Break, a student-run service organization promoting community involvement, social action and critical thinking
• Summer intern with Audubon Arkansas, researching, designing and maintaining an Arkansas native plant and rain garden while leading summer camps for underprivileged youth about the importance of nature
• Has been involved with Eco-Dores and Eco-Suds, student groups who act as peer educators to other students to live in an environmentally sustainable way
• Other service activities include MOSAIC Multicultural Weekend, Dance Marathon (a student fund-raiser), Student Athlete Advisory Council, Bowling with Cerebral Palsy, Asian New Year Festival and Rites of Spring Recycling.
Each year, the SEC, in conjunction with AT&T, an SEC Corporate Champion sponsor, provides the league’s male and female McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship recipients with a $15,000 post-graduate scholarship.
Each of the SEC’s 14 teams nominated a male and female candidate for the McWhorter Award scholarship. All nominees will also receive a $7,500 post-graduate scholarship.
The award recipients are chosen by a committee of Faculty Athletics Representatives from the 14 SEC institutions and are honored at the SEC Spring Meetings in Sandestin, Fla., in late May.