Hampton, Scott Among Big 12's Gautt Award Recipients
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Nicknames are common in athletics, but few student-athletes have earned titles like Kansas Rowing’s Tessa Scott, who was tagged with the Swahili word ‘changamfu’ – energetic, uplifting and enlivening – while studying abroad in Tanzania. Perhaps folks can just call her professor, as the linguistics major was announced as one of the Big 12’s Dr. Prentice Gautt Postgraduate Scholarship recipients along with distance runner James Hampton, the conference office announced Wednesday.
Scott, who was recently recognized by Kansas rowing with a senior academic achievement award and team academic award, and Hampton were among 20 Big 12 student-athletes selected to receive the $10,000 award for 2015-16. The list of all-time recipients has grown to 381 since the inception of the league in 1996-97 with $2.7 million in postgraduate scholarships awarded.
Scott, who intends on teaching in college eventually and has studied Swahili extensively, is a two-time Academic All-Big 12 honoree and the recipient of the Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award in 2015 – the highest academic award in the Big 12. The De Soto, Kansas, native parlayed her experience as a competitive power lifter to become an elite rower at the collegiate level. She rowed in the First Varsity Four boat as a freshman, the First and Second Varsity Eights as a junior, was a leader on the First Varsity Eight boat as a senior.
Hampton, from Wichita, Kansas, finished among KU’s top five in all five meets he competed in during the 2015 cross country season, including contributing as a scoring member to the Jayhawks’ Big 12 and NCAA Midwest Regional efforts. He was also a two-time Academic All-Big 12 First Team selection in cross country.
The scholarships are named in honor of the late Dr. Prentice Gautt, a former Lawrence resident, Big 12 Conference staff member, and student services’ pioneer who passed away in 2005. The list of all-time recipients has grown to 323 since the inception of the league in 1996-97. Starting in 2002-03, additional funding increased the number of scholarship award winners to two per member institution.
Criteria for the awards includes a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, participation in at least two years of intercollegiate athletics at the nominee’s respective institution and completion of athletics’ eligibility. The student-athletes also must graduate from their respective member institutions within 15 months of their selection for a postgraduate scholarship and are expected to enroll in graduate/professional schools within two years of graduation. Three faculty representatives, one senior woman administrator and one director of athletics form the selection panel for the awards.
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