In the Student Spotlight: June 14, 2019

Kudos to these students

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  • Linguistics doctoral student Brett Hashimoto and assistant English professor Jesse Egbert authored “More Than Frequency? Exploring Predictors of Word Difficulty for Second Language Learners.” The paper, published in the Language Learning journal, examines the relationship between vocabulary acquisition for second language learners and a variety of lexical characteristics.
  • Student-athletes have earned a number of academic achievements for NAU Athletics.
    • Four student-athletes won CoSIDA Academic All-District status: Geordie Beamish of the men’s Cross Country and Track & Field team; Brooks DeBisshop of the men’s basketball team; Hanneke Lodewijks of the women’s tennis team; and Abby Stomp of the volleyball team.
    • The department set a record for highest combined semester GPA, posting 3.13 for spring 2019. The overall cumulative GPA of the university’s more than 350 student-athletes is 3.12, which also is a department record.
    • Ten Lumberjack athletic teams posted a GPA of 3.0 or higher in both the fall and spring semesters in 2018-19, with the women’s basketball team leading the way with a department high of 3.64 in the spring.
    • 213 individual student-athletes posted a GPA of 3.0 or better for the spring semester; 49 recorded a 4.0.
    • So far, 86 student-athletes have received Big Sky/WAC All-Academic mentions for the academic year.
  • The women’s tennis team was regionally ranked at No. 8 in the Oracle/ITA Mountain Region Rankings released by the ITA. The Big Sky Championship team finished 15-9 overall and 9-1 in conference play and earned their second-ever spot competing in the NCAA Tournament. Three players were regionally ranked:
    • Chiara Tomasetti finished the season as the region’s No. 1 player, jumping nine places since her No. 10 finish last spring.
    • Lodewijks and Ellie Millard were ranked No. 10 in this season’s Mountain Region doubles list, marking the second time the pair was included in the regional top 10.
  • The men’s tennis team finished the season at No. 6 in the Oracle/ITA Mountain Region rankings for the team’s highest mountain regional ranking in program history.
    • Tim Handel was listed No. 5 in the Mountain Region singles.
    • Handel and Ruben Montano were ranked No. 2 in regional doubles.
  • At the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships, Tyler Day made First Team All-American status in the Men’s 10K, finishing sixth with a time of 29:25.35. In the Men’s 5K Finals, Beamish and Luis Grijalva earned Second Team All-American honors with times of 14:13.18 and 14:20.86, respectively. Brodey Hasty received an Honorable Mention with a time of 14:25.54.
  • Sports medicine graduate assistant Naomi Eastland won a John McLendon Minority Postgraduate Scholarship Award in the form of a $10,000 grant to use toward postgraduate studies in athletics administration. Eastland works with the men’s and women’s track & field programs while she pursues a master’s degree in educational leadership. Earlier this year, Eastland won the David H. Perrin Scholarship from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association.
  • NAU Yuma student Kelly Shaeffer won the Best Individual Student Negotiator Award at the annual Business Negotiation Competition sponsored by Baylor University. The international event consists of two rounds of team negotiations judged by professional business executives and experienced academics. Shaeffer was coached by assistant clinical professor Jason Myrowitz.
Cheyenne Jarrette