Photo Provided By UW Athletics
The University of Wyoming Athletics Department held a special reception for its graduating student-athletes on Thursday. A total of 59 Cowboy and Cowgirl student-athletes are scheduled to graduate this spring, according to a release from UW Athletics.
Approximately 130 people were in attendance, including a large number of the spring graduates, members of their families, UW faculty and UW Athletics coaching and administrative staffs. The reception was held in the Wildcatter Stadium Club & Suites at War Memorial Stadium.
The combined cumulative grade-point average for the 59 graduates entering the 2016 spring semester was an impressive 3.24. The spring student-athlete graduates are earning their degrees in 28 different majors.
Chaundra Sewell, a former Cowgirl basketball player who is receiving her doctor of pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree this spring, spoke at the ceremony on behalf of the graduating student-athletes. Prior to Thursday night’s ceremony, Sewell was asked what it meant to her to complete her degree at UW.
“For UW Athletics to support me from day one until now means the world,” said Sewell. “I personally have a lot of family flying in from the east coast, down south, everyone is coming to see me walk across the stage, so obviously it is a big thing for us all and we are all very excited. I didn’t get a bachelor’s degree between high school and now, since I went directly into the pharmacy program, so this is the first college graduation ceremony for me.”
What did it mean to her to be asked to represent the UW student-athletes at the graduation stole reception?
“I was shocked to be asked since I’ve been away from athletics for a few years working to complete my pharmacy degree,” said Sewell. “For athletics to come to me and want to include me in the ceremony means a lot, and I appreciate that. I was honored to be asked to represent the graduating student-athletes at the ceremony, because I know how much hard work each of them has put into their sports and their academics. Wyoming will always be a very special place for me.”
The reception, which has been held for UW student-athletes each semester since the spring of 2014, includes the presentation of an athletics graduation stole to each student. Those graduation stoles are provided to wear along with the graduation stole from each student-athlete’s college during graduation ceremonies.
The UW Athletics graduation stole is white with the familiar Steamboat Bucking Horse and Rider emblem on the right-hand side of the stole and a W-Club emblem on the left. Each graduating student-athlete will also receive a free W-Club membership for the coming year. The W-Club is the official organization for former Cowboy and Cowgirl student-athletes and coaches.