Bucknell University Athletics
Three Bucknell Student-Athletes Earn Arthur Ashe Sports Scholar Awards
6/1/2009 8:00:00 AM | Football
June 1, 2009
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Three Bucknell student-athletes have been awarded 2009 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Awards, presented to collegiate athletes of color who excel in academics, athletics and community service. Senior Jason Soto (Hackettstown, N.J./Morris Catholic) was a first-team selection for men's soccer, junior Sam Nana-Sinkam (Lititz, Pa./Manheim Township) was a second-team pick for football, and junior Kyle Anthony (Barryville, N.Y./Eldred Central) was a third-team pick in track and field.
The Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Awards are presented by the publication Diverse: Issues In Higher Education. Nominees must have completed one full year of study, have a minimum 3.20 cumulative grade-point average and present a demonstrated record of service to the campus or community.
Soto graduated earlier this month with a 3.71 GPA in economics. He was one of 13 first-team men's soccer selections for the Ashe Award. An ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District selection this fall, Soto was a four-year contributor at midfield and fullback for the Bison. He played in 18 matches and made 15 starts during his senior campaign, and he appeared in a total of 62 contests during his career.
Soto made the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll all four years and earned a spot on the Bucknell Dean's List (3.5 GPA or better) in all eight semesters. He was awarded a Larison Academic Scholarship, was a member of the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society and finished an honors thesis in economics. Last summer he completed an internship in the corporate treasury division of Goldman Sachs & Company.
At Bucknell, he was one of 12 students from the Class of 2009 elected to the Omicron Delta Kappa honorary leadership society, based on superior scholarship, leadership and exemplary character. He was one of 160 students selected from a national candidate pool for the Management Leadership for Tomorrow program and as part of the Campus Ambassadors Program received the John Rice Leadership Award. He also served as a teaching assistant for the International Economic Theory course at Bucknell and was a member of the Bucknell Investment Club.
Nana-Sinkam earned a perfect 4.0 GPA in the spring 2009 semester, upping his cumulative average to 3.55. A management major, Nana-Sinkam was an ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District selection this fall. Through six games he led the Patriot League and ranked among the national leaders with 62 tackles, but his season was cut short by a season-ending ankle injury. An inside linebacker, he had an 18-tackle performance against Cornell and blocked a potential game-tying field goal as time expired in a win at Robert Morris. As a freshman, Nana-Sinkam started all 11 games, made 85 tackles and earned the Stuart M. Smith Award as the team's top newcomer.
Off the field, Nana-Sinkam was also picked as a career prep fellow for the Management Leadership for Tomorrow program. He was selected as one of 220 from nationwide pool of candidates from his class for this one-year career development program, where he participated in skill development workshops. He has worked as an event assistant with the Bucknell Women's Resource Center, and he co-founded his own urban clothing company, Undeniable Flow Clothing, which maintains five employees.
Anthony has a 3.49 cumulative GPA while double-majoring in English and philosophy with a minor in Spanish. One of the top horizontal jumpers in Bucknell history, Anthony just completed a terrific outdoor season in which he won the Patriot League triple jump title then went on to place third at the IC4A Championships and 15th at the NCAA East Regional. He was first in the triple jump and third in the long jump at both the indoor and outdoor conference championships this year, and Anthony now ranks second in Bucknell history in the triple jump and fourth in the long jump both indoors and outdoors.
This fall Anthony received the Charles F. White Memorial Prize for excellence in athletics and academics. He will be the president of the Bucknell Student-Athlete Advisory Committee in 2009-2010. He serves as a residential assistant, and last year he served as a YMCA camp counselor in Toledo, Spain, where he taught swimming and other recreational games to Spanish-speaking children aged 4-12. Also a Bucknell Buddies tutor, Anthony has spent time as a mission mentor with Touch the World Ministries, he has serves as a tutor at the Haven Ministries homeless shelter in nearby Sunbury, he co-led a youth Bible group at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Lewisburg, and this semester he served as the treasurer for Eidos, Bucknell's academic journal publication.
The Arthur Ashe Sports Scholars of the Year were Northwestern baseball player Kenneth Avila and Oklahoma State women's soccer student-athlete Yolanda Odenyo.
