Keener and Mills Earn Big Ten Postgraduate Scholarships
5/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
EAST Lansing, Michigan -All 14 Big Ten schools receive $15,000 each to award to a male and female athlete. Twenty-nine student-athletes from the 14 Big Ten institutions who plan to continue their education at a graduate degree program were awarded the scholarship, based primarily on academic achievements.
This year's recipients come from 15 different sports and will continue their education in a variety of different disciplines, including athletic administration and sport management, audiology, biomedical engineering, business administration, chemistry, communicative sciences and disorders, dentistry, international affairs, law, medicine, occupational therapy and physical therapy.
Mills started all 30 games last season, averaging 9.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. This season, she tied her career high with 22 points against Loyola on December 14. She also set a new career-high with 16 rebounds against Northwestern on December 28. She became the 23rd member of the 1,000 point club as a senior, ending her career with 1,157 points scored. During her four-year career, she appeared in 129 games as a Spartan, starting 100.
She is a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree and was named a 2012-13 B1G Distinguished Scholar. Mills plans to go to school to become a physician's assistant.
Keener ended the 2014 campaign starting 22 of MSU's 23 matches, scoring two goals for four points. He helped the Spartans end the season ranked No. 8 in the NSCAA rankings, as MSU advanced to the Elite Eight for the second-straight season. Keener was also named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team in 2011.
He went on to become a three-year Academic All-Big Ten honoree and a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar in 2012 and 2013. In 2014, he capped off his career earning Second-Team All-Big Ten and First-Team CoSIDA Academic All-American honors, only the second Spartan soccer player all-time to receive the recognition. Keener will attend dental school at the University of Michigan in the fall.
Keener and Mills are two of seven postgraduate scholarship honorees to earn the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award this season.
Each Big Ten institution developed its own on-campus selection process when awarding the scholarship. Student-athletes must have maintained at least a 3.2 grade-point-average, demonstrated leadership qualities, served as an excellent role model and intended to continue their academic work beyond their baccalaureate degree at a graduate degree program.
The scholarship will be used to pay expenses of the student's postgraduate education to include such related activities as research and teaching, as well as other expenses such as tuition, fees, room and board, required course-related supplies and books. In order to retain the scholarship, the recipient must be accepted into a full-time graduate degree program within three years from the fall semester after selection.
