STUDENT-ATHLETE
SERVICES
West Virginia University offers a variety of services and programs to help student-athletes maximize their academic potential. Department staff members work with coaches, on campus student service providers and faculty to help student-athletes meet the unique demands of the classroom, the sporting arena and the personal-social challenges they face as developing adults. While many of the headlines center on the Mountaineers’ accomplishments on the playing field, West Virginia athletes have also made some noteworthy strides in the classroom. Some of those strides include a string of 10 consecutive years where the department has had at least one first team Academic All-American. To help its student athletes achieve academic success, one of the nation’s finest facilities resides in the WVU Coliseum – The Athletic Academic Performance Center. The 8,000-square foot facility provides individual and group study areas, a plethora of computer stations and the latest in fingerprint technology used when signing in. A total of 340 student-athletes were recognized for their achievement in the classroom last spring, at the annual WVU Student-Athlete Academic Excellence Banquet, honoring recipients of the Garrett Ford Academic Honor Roll. Implemented in 1989, the Garrett Ford Academic Honor Roll was created to recognize students who have achieved a grade point average of 3.0 or better. Since the program began in 1989, nearly 4,000 student-athletes have earned a place on the honor roll. Ford retired in 2011 after 44 years of service with the WVU Department of Intercollegiate Athletics.
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