APPLETON, Wis. -- Lawrence University student-athlete Benjamin Glover has been chosen as an Arthur Ashe Jr., Sports Scholar Award.
The award is presented by the magazine Diverse: Issues In Higher Education, and Glover was a first-team selection in track and field. Glover, who competes in the high jump, long jump, and triple jump for the Lawrence track team, also plays midfield on the Vikings' soccer team. A senior from Accra, Ghana, Glover sports a 3.578 grade point average and is a biology and chemistry interdisciplinary major.
"I always think of Ben as a great teammate," Director of Athletics Robert Beeman said. "He is always at the ready to do whatever needs to be done for his team and his teammates to be successful. He is the epitome of what a Lawrence University student-athlete should be. He competes in multiple sports for Lawrence, and he is a star in the classroom."
The Sports Scholar Award is named for Arthur Ashe, who died from AIDS-related pneumonia in 1993 after contracting the disease from a blood transfusion following double-bypass surgery. Before his untimely death at the age of 49, Ashe already had an impressive academic, athletic, social and civil rights résumé. Ashe was a pioneer in tennis, becoming the first African-American man to win the U.S. Open, the Australian Open, and Wimbledon.
Diverse established the Sports Scholar Awards to "honor undergraduate students of color who have made achieving both academically and athletically a winning combination." To be eligible for the award, students have to compete in an intercollegiate sport, maintain a cumulative 3.2 grade point average, and be active on their campuses or in their communities.
Glover, who was one of 17 athletes named to the first team but one of only five from NCAA Division III institutions, is an Academic All-Midwest Conference selection in both soccer and track and field. A Dean's List student at Lawrence, Glover recently won the college's Campus Life Award, given to a senior in recognition of service and leadership, and the John H. Scidmore Memorial Award, given to a senior man who best exemplifies the characteristics of academic diligence, service to campus groups, and interest in and loyalty to classmates.
Glover also has won the African Heritage Leadership Award and the United States Achievement Academy Collegiate Minority Leadership Award.
Glover, who serves as secretary of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, has been active in the Lawrence community. He has served as a biology tutor, worked as treasurer of the Students' War Against Hunger and Poverty, was chair of the Lawrence Honor Council, and worked as a volunteer for numerous projects, including those involving Habitat for Humanity and the Salvation Army.