LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Kaleb Roush of Colorado College and Lauren Wheeler of Austin College have been selected as the SCAC Male and Female Character & Community Student-Athletes of the Week, respectively, for the week ending Sunday, March 2.
The SCAC Character & Community award was created in 2009 to
honor and recognize the efforts of the
extraordinary student-athletes of the conference who not
only excel athletically on the field, course, court, pool or
track, but also by serving their campus and community.
To view past winners of the award, click here.
KALEB ROUSH OF COLORADO COLLEGE, a
senior on the men's swimming and diving team, has been selected the
SCAC Character & Community Male Student-Athlete-of-the-Week for
the week ending Sunday, March 2, 2014.
Whether it be in the pool, in the classroom or somewhere else on
campus, Roush has excelled as a teammate
and mentor for members of CC’s swimming and diving team, as
well as for many first-year physics and biology students.
If Roush’s teammates want to know
what kind of drops in times they can expect during their careers,
all they need to do is a little research into what their co-captain
has accomplished in the 400-yard individual medley at the SCAC
Swimming and Diving Championships.
During his freshman campaign, the native of Windsor, Colo., posted
a season-best time of 4:23.26, which was good for seventh place. At
the 2013 championships, Roush set the
school record in the 400 IM, touching the wall in 4:10.84 during
the preliminaries. He also placed third in the championship finals,
as well as fifth in the 200 IM and sixth in the 200 butterfly.
Roush, who owns a 3.98 grade-point average as a
biochemistry major with a minor in mathematics, has made three
consecutive appearances on the SCAC’s Honor Roll.
Throughout his career, Roush has
participated in several community service endeavors. He has been
very active in Colorado College’s Student-Athlete Advisory
Council (SAAC), serving as vice president during the 2013-14
academic year and participating in the ‘Parent’s Night
Out’ fundraisers.
He also has been an SCAC representative since 2011, communicating
student-athlete perspectives regarding proposed NCAA legislation
and representing CC athletes in the conference video shoots
promoting sportsmanship.
Roush, who was voted one of the team’s
captains this season, played an active role in organizing the
team's annual Hour of Power event that raises awareness and funding
for sarcoma research.
His leadership skills have extended far beyond the deck at
Schlessman Natatorium, as Roushalso has been
a fixture in the halls of the college’s science buildings
throughout his last three years on campus.
He has served as a research and laboratory assistant in the
college’s biology and physics departments, beginning began as
a learning assistant and FYE mentor in the fall of 2012. More
recently, his duties have included directing and supervising
student usage of Colorado College’s atomic force microscope,
as well as analyzing the quality and utility of the data generated
by students.
His research included investigating the morphological and
physiological roles of five different genes expressed during
long-term stationary phase in Acinetobacter baylyi through atomic
force microscopy, fluorescent microscopy, and the generation of
growth curves.
Roush also has participated in summer
research projects. In 2012, he assisted Dr. Murphy Brasuel in
CC’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
The following year, he worked alongside Dr. Stephen Dewhurst in
the Microbiology and Immunology Department at the University of
Rochester School of Medicine, researching HIV vaccine development
using nano particles.
After graduating in May, Roush plans to
take a year or two before applying to graduate school where he
hopes to enroll in microbiology and immunology programs. During
that time, he hopes to gain more laboratory experience by
participating in a variety of fellowships and internships.
LAUREN WHEELER
OF AUSTIN COLLEGE, a sophomore on the women's
swimming and diving team, has been selected the SCAC Character
& Community Female Student-Athlete-of-the-Week for the week
ending March 2, 2014.
Wheeler has excelled not only in the pool
but also in the classroom and the community both at Austin College
and in her hometown of Southlake, Texas.
Wheeler, who has earned All-SCAC honors and broken
numerous Austin College swimming records in her two seasons, is
also an active member of the Student Athlete Advisory Council,
where she has helped organize the college’s work with Special
Olympics, in addition to holding multiple other volunteer and
community oriented positions.
She has worked as a volunteer at Escuela y Infantil in Almeda, a
Spanish elementary school, and has also been a member of the Austin
College Premed Society. Wheeler has also
volunteered at numerous swim meets as both a timer and safety
marshal since 2009, and attends Austin College on a Presidential
Scholarship as a reflection of her outstanding academic successes.
Since coming to Austin College she has been on the Dean’s
List, as well as a SCAC Academic Honor Roll member.
While attending Southlake Carroll High
School, Wheeler was inducted into both
the National Honor Society and the National Spanish Honor Society,
as well as the math honor society, Mu Alpha Theta. She was also
named the Most Outstanding Medical Terminology Student at the
Carroll Medical Academy, and was a Distinguished AP Scholar. She
has worked as an assistant swim coach with SwimTexoma, where she
has worked with children ranging from six to 11 years old, and also
served an internship with TexomaCare Pediatrics in Denison, Texas.
While in high school, she also worked as an intern at Southlake
Dermatology and at Marsh Eye Center.
