SoCon announces postgraduate scholars

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Southern Conference announced its 10 postgraduate scholarship recipients for the 2022-23 academic year Tuesday.
 
This year’s honorees include: David Knight Scholarship recipient Adam Beucler (Furman); Dave Hart Scholarship recipient Vladi Zander-Velloso (Mercer); Bob McCloskey Insurance Scholarship recipients Andrea Bailey (Samford) and Callum Rendle (Wofford); Dorothy Hicks Scholarship recipient Merritt Cahoon (Samford); William V. Moore Scholarship presented by McMillan Pazdan Smith recipient Caroline Nguyen (Furman); and Southern Conference Presidential Scholarship recipients Reynolds Lambert (Furman), Cassidy Dufour (VMI), Samantha Reele (Western Carolina) and Rylee Jorgensen (Wofford).
 
The recipients are nominated by their schools and selected by the Southern Conference Graduate Scholar Committee. The scholarships, worth $2,000 each, are awarded to student-athletes who intend to pursue advanced degrees in graduate or professional school. The student-athletes are evaluated on academics, athletics and community service.
 
Adam Beucler, Furman – David Knight Scholarship
Furman’s Adam Beucler is the recipient of the 2023 David Knight Scholarship. A runner on Furman’s cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field teams, Beucler has enjoyed a decorated career for the Paladins. He has twice earned All-SoCon honors in cross country, earning a second-team nod in 2020, when he also claimed the Pinnacle Award as the student-athlete with the highest GPA on the championship-winning team, and a first-team citation in 2022, when he finished seventh overall to help Furman to its 10th straight team title. The Hudson, Ohio, native competed at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in the spring of 2021 and ran in the NCAA Southeast Region Cross Country Championships in the fall of 2022. On Oct. 13, 2021, he was named the SoCon Cross Country Runner of the Week. A captain for the cross country team, Beucler has also excelled on the track, winning the 5,000-meter run title at the 2021 SoCon Indoor Track and Field Championships and the 2023 SoCon Outdoor Track and Field Championships. He also turned in podium finishes in the indoor 10,000-meter run in 2021 (third) and the indoor 3,000-meter run (third) and 5,000-meter run (second) in 2023. A health sciences major, Beucler is just as accomplished in the classroom, as he claimed CoSIDA Academic All-District Team honors in 2022 and helped Furman earn USTFCCCA All-Academic Team distinction in 2020, 2021 and 2022. He also earned inclusion in the Phi Eta Sigma, Alpha Epsilon Delta and Omicron Delta Kappa honor societies. In the community, Beucler has made Children’s Hospital visits and worked at various on-campus service events as part of groups; served as a group leader for Let There Be Mom, a Greenville, South Carolina, nonprofit organization dedicated to parents battling life-threatening illnesses; and has volunteered at AID Upstate, nonprofit organization that provides supportive services to people affected by HIV/AIDS in the Upstate of South Carolina. Beucler plans to attend medical school in the fall.
 
Vladi Zander-Velloso, Mercer – Dave Hart Scholarship
Mercer cross country runner Vladi Zander-Velloso is the 2023 recipient of the Dave Hart Scholarship. A five-year member of the team, Zander-Velloso has improved his showing at the SoCon Cross Country Championships each year of his career, culminating in his sixth-place finish at the 2022 edition, which netted him All-SoCon first-team honors and was the highest ever for a Mercer men’s cross country runner at the meet. He set a program record in the 8K with his time of 24:23.40 at that meet, then broke the school’s 10K record at the NCAA South Regional Championship with a time of 31:00.26 a couple of weeks later. Zander-Velloso, from Peachtree City, Georgia, helped the Bears to a third-place team finish at the SoCon meet in 2021, their highest since joining the league, then helped Mercer match that feat in 2022. In the classroom, Zander-Velloso has earned spots on Mercer’s Dean’s List as well as the SoCon Academic Honor Roll and Academic All-SoCon teams and earned the SoCon Commissioner’s Medal in 2021-22 for having a cumulative GPA of 3.8 or higher. In the community, Zander-Velloso has volunteered with numerous causes, including the Macon Labor Day Road Race, Backpack Ministry, Fayette County Adopt-A-Stream, and Habitat for Humanity, and has served as a youth basketball coach and soccer referee and as a junior counselor at a running camp. A native of Argentina, he has also volunteered teaching English to native Spanish speakers. After graduating with undergraduate degrees in Spanish and criminal justice, Zander-Velloso began work on a master’s degree in higher education leadership at Mercer in the fall of 2022 as he pursues a career in athletics.
 
Andrea Bailey, Samford – Bob McCloskey Insurance Scholarship
Samford’s women’s basketball player Andrea Bailey is one of two recipients of a Bob McCloskey Insurance Scholarship. Bailey is one of the most decorated players in Samford women’s basketball history. After transferring to the Bulldogs following two seasons at Louisiana, Bailey completed her first season in Birmingham, Alabama, being named the 2020-21 SoCon Player of the Year by the coaches and the media and was also named to the SoCon All-Tournament team. In each of her three seasons at Samford, Bailey earned SoCon first-team all-conference and all-defensive team honors. In 2022-23, Bailey was voted the SoCon player of the year again by the media. Over her career, Bailey was named SoCon player of the week five times and player of the month twice. She also set two game records for the Bulldogs. On Dec. 1, 2021, at Troy, Bailey had seven steals to set a program record and on Nov. 17, 2022, she set a program record for points with 37 at Alabama A&M. Bailey was a member of the Dean’s List in each year of college. In 2018-19 while at Louisiana, she was the women’s basketball student-athlete of the year and she was go on to become the 2021-22 Samford Student-Athlete of the Year. The native of Merryville, Louisiana, has been a member of the SoCon Commissioner’s List during each of her years at Samford and received the Samford University Speech Pathology Academic Achievement Award twice. In the community, Bailey was a team leader for Trees for Threes and a volunteer for the Down Syndrome Association in 2019. Her other volunteer efforts include working with Private Practice, Bundles of Hope and Bell Center. Bailey has also served as a Vacation Bible School teacher and a women’s shelter volunteer. The communication sciences and disorders major and religious studies minor plans on beginning graduate school in August.
 
Callum Rendle, Wofford – Bob McCloskey Insurance Scholarship
Wofford men’s tennis player Callum Rendle is one of two recipients of a Bob McCloskey Insurance Scholarship. A four-year starter for the Terriers, Rendle played at No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles for the final three seasons of his career and paced Wofford in wins at 6-2 during the COVID-shortened 2020 season. The Berkshire, England, native, who served as a team captain in 2023, is a Wofford’s Dean’s List student and earned spots on the SoCon Academic Honor Roll and All-Academic Teams in addition to earning the SoCon Commissioner’s Medal, awarded to those on the Honor Roll with at least a 3.8 cumulative GPA. Rendle, who also earned ITA Scholar-Athlete honors, served as a member of Wofford’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and has tutored students in accounting principles, business finance, FSA, investments and real estate analysis. After serving as a research associate on the James Atkins Fund, a student-managed investment fund on Wofford’s campus, Rendle was promoted to a portfolio manager for the fund, which is valued at about $400,000 and a portion of its returns are used to alleviate poverty in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Rendle also completed a real estate private equity summer internship with Asana Partners in Charlotte, North Carolina, and completed a finance analyst role at CEG in London in the summer of 2021. In the summer of 2020, Rendle started a small tennis coaching business. Rendle will begin work on a master’s degree in finance at Vanderbilt in August.
 
Merritt Cahoon, Samford – Dorothy Hicks Scholarship
Samford infielder Merritt Cahoon is the 2023 Dorothy Hicks Scholarship recipient. She has been a member of the Bulldog softball team for five seasons. In her freshman season in 2019, Cahoon made an immediate impact for Samford, leading to her being named to the SoCon All-Freshman team. Her most recent honor came during the 2023 SoCon Softball Championship, when the Vestavia Hills, Alabama, native was named to the all-tournament team after leading the tournament in hits with eight. She also tied for the tournament lead in batting average (.500) and RBIs (four). Cahoon finished her career with 145 hits, six home runs, 22 doubles, 73 RBIs and 43 runs scored. Cahoon has been a member of the SoCon’s Spring Academic All-Conference Team and received a SoCon Commissioner’s Medal in each year she has been on campus. She is a computer science and mathematics major and minored in Spanish. Within the computer science department at Samford, Cahoon received the Emerging Computer Scientist Award and the Aubrey F. Lancaster Endowed Scholarship. In 2022, she was inducted into Sigma Pi Delta National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society and Pi Mu Epsilon Mathematics Honor Society and had a top-five scoring paper at MIT URTC. In the community of Birmingham, Alabama, Cahoon has organized multiple canned food drives and Civic Duty Day for Athletes. She has been a co-chair of SAAC and a member of Howard Scholars, Athlete’s Council for Equality and the President's Advisory Committee. In the fall, Cahoon plans to attend Duke for graduate school.
 
Caroline Nguyen, Furman – William V. Moore Scholarship presented by McMillan Pazdan Smith
Furman’s Caroline Nguyen is the recipient of the 2023 William V. Moore Scholarship presented by McMillan Pazdan Smith. A four-year member of the Paladins’ indoor and outdoor track and field programs, the Asheville, North Carolina, native has scored for Furman at the SoCon indoor and outdoor meets in her career, finishing seventh in the 4x400-meter relay at the 2021 SoCon Indoor Track and Field Championships and taking eighth in the 400-meter hurdles at the 2021 SoCon Outdoor Track and Field Championships. She also took eighth in the 400-meter hurdles and scored in both relays at the 2022 outdoor meet and finished eighth in the 400-meter hurdles and sixth in the 4x400-meter relay at the 2023 outdoor meet. A four-year member of the SoCon Academic Honor Roll and Furman Dean’s List, the biology-biomedical sciences major is a member of the Phi Eta Sigma honor society, a Bell Tower Scholarship recipient and a winner of the Shucker Community Service Leadership Award. She also helped Furman earn USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Nguyen has logged hundreds of hours of volunteer service, for: the Greenville Free Dental Clinic, where she is the lead student volunteer; the Greenville Free Medical Clinic, where she organized an event to package oral hygiene packets; Team Smile; Prisma Children's Hospital; Let There Be Mom; Rise Against Hunger; and Heller Service Corps, where she worked as a leadership team member, coordinating volunteers for local agencies and helping students get connected to service opportunities. She also serves as the Body Image Chair for the Kappa Delta Sorority, assisting in planning philanthropic events, and is the president of Furman’s Pre-Dental Club. Nguyen intends to pursue a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree.
 
Reynolds Lambert, Furman – Southern Conference Presidential Scholarship
Furman’s Reynolds Lambert is a recipient of a 2023 Southern Conference Presidential Scholarship. He is a four-year member of the Paladins’ men’s golf team. Lambert completed 46 rounds over 16 events during his career at Furman. He shot his career-best round of 65 on two occasions, once at the Wolfpack Intercollegiate as a freshman and the other at the Cleveland Golf Palmetto Intercollegiate during his sophomore season. The Mountain Brook, Alabama, native has been on the Dean’s List every semester of his college career and received the Excellence in Business Award this year. Other academic honors for Lambert include being inducted into Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society in 2020, being named a Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar in 2021 and receiving the Southern Conference’s Commissioner’s Medal distinction three times. Lambert is a business administration major with a minor in data analytics. He will begin graduate school at Vanderbilt in August.
 
Cassidy Dufour, VMI – Southern Conference Presidential Scholarship
VMI’s Cassidy Dufour is the recipient of a 2023 Southern Conference Presidential Scholarship. A member of VMI’s rifle team, Dufour competed for the Keydets’ women’s squad for the first three years of her career before moving the co-ed team as a senior in 2022-23, when she was a team captain and finished second on the squad with a 575.000 air rifle average. She posted the top score on the women’s team in 2021-22 of 576 and shot a career-best 581 as a senior this season, helping VMI to program records in aggregate twice during the 2022-23 campaign. A three-time CRCA Scholastic All-American, Dufour is double majoring in international studies and modern languages and cultures with a concentration in Arabic. She was a three-time VMI Air Force ROTC scholarship winner and twice earned an $8,000 scholarship from Project Global Officer to study Arabic. Dufour, who earned the National Sojourners Award and the Military Order of the Purple Heart ROTC Leadership Award, attended an international studies tour to Israel in the fall of 2022 and was selected to attend an Olmstead Foundation tour of Japan in the spring following her participation in the International Law of Armed Conflict Competition in Italy. Dufour, who serves as a Cadet Chaplain and a Sunday School teacher, served as a project manager for the Arnold Air Society 5K Run Fundraiser and was a food collector for a class-wide ruck march for food. The Amherst, New Hampshire, native took part in the Model Arab League debate and has achieved Arabic Proficiency as measured by the D.O.D.’s Defense Language Proficiency Test. In the fall of 2023, Dufour will attend the University of Virginia, where she will pursue a Juris Doctor degree prior to entering active duty service as a United States Air Force Judge Advocate General.
 
Samantha Reele, Western Carolina – Southern Conference Presidential Scholarship
Western Carolina’s Samantha Reele is the recipient of a 2023 Southern Conference Presidential Scholarship. Reele is a catcher on the Catamounts’ softball team and an integrated health science major with a minor in psychology. She began her athletic career in 2020, playing in 117 games with 99 starts over her career, finishing with seven home runs, 18 doubles, 28 RBIs and 27 runs scored. A member of the WCU Chancellor’s List for four years, Reele has been on the SoCon All-Academic Team for three years. She has also been on the SoCon Academic Honor Roll twice and earned a spot on the 2023 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team. Reele served as a volunteer softball coach from 2019-23, and in 2022, she assisted with packing food boxes for the less fortunate. In August, the Waxhaw, North Carolina, native plans to begin the Doctor of Occupational Therapy program at Wingate, Saint Augustine or D'Youville.
 
Rylee Jorgensen, Wofford – Southern Conference Presidential Scholarship
Wofford’s Rylee Jorgensen is the recipient of a 2023 Southern Conference Presidential Scholarship. A member of the Terriers’ indoor and outdoor track and field programs, Jorgensen is a three-time SoCon champion and the program record-holder in the 4x100-meter relay, helping Wofford to wins at the 2021, 2022 and 2023 SoCon Outdoor Track and Field Championships. She also earned podium finishes in the 4x400-meter relay at the 2020 SoCon Indoor Track and Field Championships and the long jump at the 2022 outdoor meet, finishing third in both events, and earned all-freshman honors in the long jump and triple jump at the 2020 indoor meet and the long jump, triple jump and 100-meter dash at the 2021 outdoor meet. She has helped Wofford to runner-up team finishes at the SoCon indoor and outdoor meets in 2021 and 2023, the Terriers’ best-ever finishes. A sociology and anthropology major, Jorgensen helped Wofford earn USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors in 2020 and 2022. The SoCon Academic Honor Roll and All-Academic selection earned Wofford’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology Rising Star award, the C.C. Norton Sociology/Anthropology Endowed Scholarship and the Commitment to Sociological Imagination and Anthropological Perspective award in addition to earning Dean’s List honors. The Maryville, Tennessee, native served as a student teacher at Cleveland Academy of Leadership and Roebuck Elementary School and serves as an after-school program volunteer at Cleveland Academic of Leadership. She also served as a website manager for Cleveland Academy of Leadership and helped facilitate Operation Christmas Child at Pine Street Elementary. Jorgensen has also consistently participated in social justice efforts at Wofford, notably within the Wofford Antiracist Coalition, a student-run activist organization. Jorgensen will pursue a master’s degree in public policy with a focus on education policy from Vanderbilt in the fall.