Atlantic 10 Release
Newport News, Va. - The Atlantic 10 Conference has announced its A-10 Postgraduate Scholarship recipients for 2018. Released on Thursday, the prestigious honor is given to a graduating student-athlete from each of the league's 14 members. For Fordham, men's soccer student-athlete
Christopher Bazzini (Oakland, N.J.) is this year's recipient.
All 14 honorees will receive $5,000 to contribute towards full-time enrollment in a postgraduate or professional program. Designed to provide graduating student-athletes the opportunity to continue their education, the program awards $70,000 in scholarship funding to former A-10 student-athletes. This marks the fourth straight year the Atlantic 10 has provided the scholarships to 14 individuals, and over the past five years, the A-10's Postgraduate Scholarship program has awarded $350,000 to 66 former student-athletes.
"This is one of our most prestigious and highly-coveted honors that the Atlantic 10 awards its student-athletes," stated Atlantic 10 Commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade. "Each of our postgraduate honorees are deserving of this award, super intelligent and multi-talented young people! Each will be exceptional leaders and successful in their post-graduate studies. I offer my congratulations to these 14 outstanding men and women."
The selection process, which involves the league's athletic directors, senior woman administrators and faculty athletic representatives, resulted in a class with an average GPA of 3.74. The class is comprised of 10 female student-athletes and four males, representing six different sports.
Bazzini, who plans on pursuing a postgraduate degree in cyber security, was a team captain and four-year member of the Fordham men's soccer program. He helped lead the Rams to one of the best seasons ever as the Rams advanced to the final eight of the 2017 NCAA Championship, and finished with a top 11 ranking in the national polls. He helped the Fordham defense rank 17th in the NCAA in shutout percentage and 25th in goals against average this past season and was a member of two Atlantic 10 Championship teams and three NCAA Championship squads.
Away from the field, Bazzini was named a Leader of Merit from the Fordham Athletics Leadership Academy in 2017, and was recently award the O'Donnell Memorial Award at the Annual Block "F" Awards Dinner. The O'Donnell Memorial Award is presented to the Fordham athlete who best exemplifies the qualities of sportsmanship, loyalty, dedication and self-discipline. The award is in memory of Terry O'Donnell, a 1955 graduate who died in a military plane crash shortly after graduation.
According to head coach
Jim McElderry: "Chris has been an integral part of our success at Fordham from the minute he stepped on campus in 2014. He arrived as a non-scholarship student-athlete but by the end of that preseason he earned the starting position and has gone on to appear in 74 games. Chris leads by example, plays the game with intensity, competes at all times and is willing to do whatever the team needs of him. He has always sacrificed individual accolades in order for our team to have the chemistry needed to beat teams with more soccer ability. Chris exemplifies what I see as the perfect student-athlete. He leads his peers on the field, in the classroom and in social environments."
In each of the last four years, the average GPA of the honorees for the Postgraduate Scholarship Program has been 3.70 or higher. The program, which began honoring two student-athletes in 1991, has been so successful and well-received by both the recipients and the A-10 member institutions that it has expanded several times. The most recent expansion, which was adopted in January, 2015 and implemented that spring, now includes one representative from each A-10 school.
To be considered for the Postgraduate Scholarship, student-athletes must have performed with distinction both in the classroom and in their respective sports throughout their career, while demonstrating exemplary conduct in the community. The postgraduate program expanded to four recipients in 1997 and then to 10 in 2014.
The Postgraduate Scholarship Program is part of the conference's broad-based commitment to student-athlete opportunities and academics. The conference consistently ranks at the top amongst all Division I Conferences in both Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and the Academic Progress Rate (APR) data released by the NCAA.
About the Atlantic 10 Conference
The Atlantic 10 Conference was founded in 1975 and consists of 14 diverse members across eight states and Washington, D.C. The mission of the Atlantic 10 is to provide an enhanced student-athlete experience through 21 nationally competitive championship sports. The basketball-centric conference is committed to integrity, educational excellence and providing quality equitable championship experiences for its student-athletes, coaches, and support staff. The membership consists of Davidson College, the University of Dayton, Duquesne University, Fordham University, George Mason University, The George Washington University, La Salle University, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Rhode Island, University of Richmond, St. Bonaventure University, Saint Joseph's University, Saint Louis University and Virginia Commonwealth University. For more information, visit www.atlantic10.com.
