INDIANAPOLIS---Brenna Burns of Davidson College and Dylan Carney of Stanford University are the recipients of the 2008 NCAA Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarships, the NCAA’s highest academic award.
The Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarships were established in 1988 and recognize the contributions of former NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. The awards encourage academic achievement of student-athletes. Each Byers Scholar will receive a $21,500 scholarship.
Recipients of the award must have a 3.5 grade-point average (4.0 scale), demonstrate evidence of superior character and leadership and show that participation in athletics has been a positive influence on their personal and intellectual development.
Last year’s Byers Scholars were Katie Kingsbury, a tennis student-athlete from Washington & Lee University and Dane Todd, a football student-athlete from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
The NCAA Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship Committee is chaired by Lee Meserve, faculty athletics representative at Bowling Green State University. Members of the committee are Elizabeth W. Rabb, assistant athletic director for compliance at Wofford College; Anne C. Woodrick, faculty athletics representative at the University of Northern Iowa; Eugene Hermitte, faculty athletics representative at Johnson C. Smith University; and Jack Ohle, president of Wartburg College.
Following are the biographies of this year’s finalists:
Brenna Burns
Davidson College, Cross Country and Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field
A Davidson College cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field captain, Burns holds five school records and has been named to the All-Southern Conference team four times — three in cross country and one in track. In addition to her record-setting performances, Burns, a psychology major, was named to the COSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Team, Omicron Delta Kappa (National Leadership Society), and Psi Chi (National Honor Society in Psychology). Pursing a doctorate degree in developmental psychology, Burns has also been active on her campus and in the community.
She is a member of Changing Minds, Davidson’s mental health awareness club and has volunteered in many capacities — as a tutor for Carolina Applied Behavior Analysis Service, an instructor for autistic children at a non-profit treatment center and a coach for Girls on the Run International.
Dylan Patrick Carney
Stanford University, Gymnastics
A five-time NCAA All-American on the horizontal bar and vault, Carney led the Stanford men’s gymnastics team to two consecutive third place finishes at the NCAA Championships. He was the 2006 NCAA National Champion on the horizontal bar and awarded Stanford’s “Block S Award,” given to the most outstanding junior student-athlete in any sport. Excelling equally in the classroom, Carney is graduating from Stanford with a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in biological sciences and will pursue a doctorate degree in medicine. Carney was a three-time NCAA Academic All-American honoree and Rhodes Scholarship finalist. In addition to working in the molecular biology research lab and serving on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), Carney is a patient intake volunteer at the Arbor Free Clinic and the co-chair of operations for the newly formed student organization, Student EMT Volunteering Abroad.
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