Bourque and Jenkins Honored as Senior Scholar Athletes
Stevens Institute of Technology’s
Jessica Bourque (Houma, LA/Vandebilt Catholic) and Hartwick College’s
Gavin Jenkins (Holbrook, NY/Sachem East) have been named the 2014-2015
Empire 8 Senior Scholar-Athlete Award winners, based on a vote by the conference faculty athletic representatives (FARs). The award honors one male and one female student-athlete who best exemplify what it means to be a dedicated scholar and athlete over the course of their collegiate careers.
Bourque is the third recipient from Stevens to earn this distinction, since the award started in 2006-07, while Jenkins is the first Hartwick honoree.
“Jessica and Gavin possess all the characteristics of the ideal student-athlete that the NCAA and Empire 8 are proud to be affiliated with,” stated Empire 8 FAR Chair Darwyn Cook. “Their commitment to academic excellence and dedication to compete in their sport at a high level is commendable.”
Throughout her time at Stevens, Bourque has excelled on the court and in the classroom, accumulating a 3.93 grade point average as a Chemical Biology major. For her academic success she is a seven-time Empire 8 President’s List honoree, a CoSIDA Capital One Academic Academic All-District and All-American (2014) and an Intercollegiate Tennis Associate (ITA) Division III Scholar-Athlete.
She has been named to the Stevens’ President’s List every semester, is a member of the Stevens Scholar Program and was the recipient of the Ann P. Neupauer Scholarship which is the institution’s most prestigious academic honor.
Clinical professor Dr. Phillip Leopold said, “Jessica is outstanding in the classroom, the lab, and in her extracurricular activities. In short, Jessica is a winner, and exemplifies the concept of a scholar-athlete.”
On the tennis court, Bourque led Stevens to a four-year overall record of 40-26 and a 25-4 mark in the Empire 8 with four appearances in the E8 Championship Tournament, advancing to the finals three times. She completed her career with a 0.805 singles winning percentage, ranks second all time with 62 career singles wins and is tied for second with 57 career doubles wins.
“Jessica has proven to be a very responsible, mature, hardworking student-athlete,” said Stevens Head Tennis Coach Steve Gachko. “She exemplifies strong leadership qualities, the utmost sportsmanlike behavior and a strong work ethic both in the classroom and on the tennis court that make her outstanding.”
Bourque has certainly been a standout on the court, receiving numerous awards throughout her career. She is a four-time E8 All-Conference honoree and was named the 2011 Rookie of the Year. The first singles and first doubles player is a three-time team Most Valuable Player (2012, 2013, 2014) and a three-time Empire 8 Women’s Tennis Player of the Year (2011, 2013, 2014).
She has been a singles semi-finalist three times at the ITA Northeast Regionals and in 2013 teamed with Lisa Tessitore to become the first doubles team in school history to win ITA Northeast Doubles title and be named ITA All-Americans.
Jenkins owns the school record in the 8k cross country (26:30.5) and has routinely scored in the top finish category in many of the races he has competed in and has finished in the top three in scoring/placing amongst his teammates in all his races throughout his career at Hartwick. During the 2013 season, he earned First Team All-Conference at the Empire 8 Championships, First Team All-Conference at the Cross Country Only Championships (CCOC) Invite and was named the team MVP. In the fall of 2014, he continued his trend of top finishes and again placed First Team All-Conference at the CCOC Championships. Jenkins was on track to repeat as All-Conference in the Empire 8 but diagnosed with a season ending injury a week before the E8 Championship.
“Gavin truly epitomizes what it means to be both a scholar and an athlete,” said Hartwick Cross Country Head Coach Matt Pohren. “He has routinely shown actions and made choices that have put the needs of others first while demonstrating his character and passion for service, leadership and academic success.”
In the classroom, Jenkins carries a grade-point average of 3.90 as a Biology major with a minor in Psychology and Religious Studies. He has been named to the Empire 8 President’s List six times and has led the men’s cross country team to Empire 8 All-Academic status and the highest team grade point average for four straight years at Hartwick.
“In over 30 years of working with undergraduate students in research, Mr. Jenkins ranks among the top five students with respect to ability and work ethic in the classroom and lab, I have had the pleasure to teach and work with in my career,” stated Dr. A. J. Russo, Hartwick Professor of Biology. “He is very intelligent, has a very good work ethic and most importantly he is truly interested in science and research.”
Jenkins was awarded Hartwick’s highest award of academic achievement, the John Christopher Hartwick Scholarship. It is given to six rising seniors from the junior class (325 juniors eligible) entering their last year of college on the basis of academic achievement, leadership and character. He has also been the recipient of the Dr. James Elting H’13 Memorial Scholarship, the Cyrus Mehri ’83 Global Pluralism Fellowship, Bocher-Deubler Award in Biology and the Freedman Prize: Physical & Life Science Division Winner.