Sampson
awarded one of 13 national scholarships
By Oscar Montealegre
On-line Forty-Niner
 Stephanie
Sampson has not only enforced that she is
a threat to be reckoned with in track and
field’s hammer throwing competition, Sampson
has also recently demonstrated that she
is a force in the field of academia.
Sampson was awarded the National Collegiate
Athletic Association women’s post-graduate
scholarship for sports administration. Sampson
will receive $6,000 dollars towards her
graduate studies at Cal State Long Beach.
Only 13 women in the country are awarded
this particular NCAA scholarship yearly.
“Sampson is the first student at CSULB to
get this specific scholarship and the second
student at CSULB to get a scholarship for
post-graduate studies,” Niall Adler said,
CSULB’s athletic department media information
assistant director.
She also won the Southern California Sports
Broadcasting scholarship. Sampson obtained
this scholarship due to her nomination for
candidacy by the athletic department at
Cal State Long Beach.
“It is pretty exciting to be rewarded scholarships
for graduate studies. Especially because
it was given to me for a combination of
both athletic and academic achievements,”
Sampson said.
Sampson is in her senior year for work on
her undergraduate degree in communication
studies. She also interns for the Sports
Information department of the Big West Conference
at CSULB.
However, after completing her work towards
a graduate degree, Sampson is still undecided
on what type of career she would like to
pursue.
“In the future I would like to be involved
in sports media relations or public relations,”
Sampson said. “Or maybe get into athletic
administration, possibly become an athletic
director.”
Sampson does not know for certain if she
has interest in entering the realm of coaching
track and field despite her success in the
sport.
Not a surprise to anybody, Sampson’s hobbies
include sports. She loves playing them and
extremely enjoys viewing professional sports.
She is an aficionado of the National Football
League and professional basketball. Yet
ironically, she does not enjoy watching
track and field, Sampson prefers to compete
in track rather than to view it.
Presently, Sampson holds the school-record
in hammer throwing. Her hammer throw of
180-feet 2-inches was the 37th best mark
in the country last year. Sampson was also
a NCAA qualifier and an all-conference honoree
last season.
In addition, she was selected as a United
States Track Coaches Association Academic
All-American.
This year she intends to make it to nationals
and push her record even higher. Most importantly,
she wants to place well at the NCAA tournament.
“We have a lot of talent this year. Our
throw squad is very deep and our serious
sprinters are getting better every day.
As a whole we should be pretty balanced
this year,” Sampson said.
The post-graduate program is only a year
and a half program. She will begin immediately
this fall. She will join former LBSU volleyball
player Keri Nishimoto as the only Beach
athletes to have received post-graduate
scholarships from the NCAA. Sampson is also
this year’s LBSU female representative for
Big West Conference Scholar Athlete.
|
