Four win national William N. Wasson Award

Wasson award winners from UNL are (clockwise, from top left) Angela Wickard, Guillermo Mejia, Frances Schoonveld and Tim Kinoshita.
Wasson award winners from UNL are (clockwise, from top left) Angela Wickard, Guillermo Mejia, Frances Schoonveld and Tim Kinoshita.

Four UNL students received the William N. Wasson Student Leadership and Academic Award presented by the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association during the organization’s national conference March 4–7 in Las Vegas, Nev.

The award is named after NIRSA’s founder Dr. William N. Wasson and is given to 24 undergraduate and 12 graduate students nationwide each year. It recognizes outstanding undergraduate and graduate students who are active participants, employees or volunteers in collegiate recreational sports departments.

Criteria for the award includes self-improvement through leadership, academic success, activities, volunteerism, and promoting inclusion.

UNL is the only higher education institution in the nation to have at least one Wasson Award winner each year since the award’s inception in 1993. UNL also leads the nation in total recipients with 63 awards.

This year’s recipients from UNL are:

— Angela Wickard, a senior hospitality, restaurant and tourism management major from Bridgeport, Neb.;

— Guillermo Mejia, a December 2012 graduate in political science from Kansas City, Mo.;

— Tim Kinoshita, a December 2012 graduate in biological systems engineering from Chappell, Neb.; and

— Frances Schoonveld, a marketing, communications and advertising master’s degree graduate student from Lincoln.

NIRSA is the leading resource for professional and student development, education, and research in collegiate recreational sports. Headquartered in Corvallis, Oregon, NIRSA was established in 1950 at a meeting at Dillard University of 22 African-American men and women from 11 historically black colleges and universities. NIRSA now includes more than 4,000 highly trained professional, student and associate members throughout the United States, Canada and other countries.

UNL Campus Recreation is an institutional member of NIRSA.

For more information about NIRSA go to http://www.nirsa.org.