May 24, 2006
PLANO, Texas - - UT-Arlington women's tennis standout Anete Rozkalne has been awarded the Southland Conference's F.L. McDonald Postgraduate Scholarship Tuesday.
Rozkalne, a senior pre-med biology major with a 3.97 GPA, was named first-team All-Southland Conference at No. 3 doubles and was a second-team All-SLC at No. 5 singles this year. She helped UTA to SLC team titles as a sophomore and junior and a second-place showing this year. The 2003 SLC Freshman of the Year, Rozkalne was recently voted the 2006 UTA Alumni Club Student-Athlete of the Year. The Riga, Latvia, native was a national qualifier in doubles competition in 2004.
Rozkalne has already been awarded a research position at Harvard Medical School and will be working with the university's staff in Alzheimer's research.
Lamar men's basketball player Kevin Smith also received the league's other F.L. McDonald Postgraduate Scholarship.
Smith compiled a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average in chemical engineering and will forgo his senior year of eligibility to enter graduate school at the University of Texas Medical Branch Dental School in Houston. With ambitions of becoming an orthodontist, Smith played three years for the Cardinals with his most extensive action coming as a redshirt freshman in 2003-04 when he appeared in 17 games, including two starts. This past season, the Humble, Texas, native played in eight games and hit five of seven field goals attempted on the year.
"Kevin and Anete represent the finest examples of academic and athletic achievement," league commissioner Tom Burnett said. "We are very proud of these accomplishments and are honored to present these awards to two of the top student-athletes in the nation."
The F.L. McDonald Postgraduate Scholarship is presented annually to graduating male and female letterwinners with the highest cumulative grade point averages during the enrollment at Southland member schools. The $2,500 scholarship must be applied to graduate study at an institution of the recipient's choice.
The award was established in memory of Dr. F.L. McDonald in 1996-97, a former president of Lamar University and 1999 Southland Hall of Honor inductee. McDonald served as Lamar's president in 1963 when the Southland Conference was established and is considered one of the league's founding fathers.
Each member institution may nominate one male and one female student-athlete who meet the following criteria: a letterwinner in a conference sport, be on track to graduate during the spring in which they are nominated or the subsequent summer, and plan to attend graduate school no later than the second fall following the receipt of the award.
Recognition is also in order for the league's scholar-athletes of the year. The annual awards are presented to the outstanding male and female individuals at each Southland school as determined by their respective institution administrators. To be eligible, students must be a letterwinner with a 3.2 grade point average and have acquired at least two years of intercollegiate competition at the school from which he/she was nominated.
An honors ceremony will be conducted to recognize the F.L. McDonald recipients and scholar-athletes at the conference's annual spring meeting in Galveston, Texas. The event will take place at the San Luis Resort on Thursday, June 1.
