French, Kupets Nominated For McWhorter Scholarship

ATHENS, Ga. --- Swimmer Kit French and gymnast Courtney Kupets have been nominated by the University of Georgia for the H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship.

The H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship has been presented by the Southeastern Conference since 1986 to the league’s top male and female scholar-athletes.

The Southeastern Conference will name the 2009 recipients of the H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship on April 6 in conjunction with National Student-Athlete Day.

French, a senior from Maineville, Ohio, has a 3.72 grade point average, majoring in Biology. He is a four-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll, the Georgia Athletics Director Honor Roll, the Dean’s List and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. He is a member of Delta Iota Epsilon Honor Society and a holder of UGA’s Ramsey Endowed Scholarship for Athletic and Academic Excellence.

A backstroke specialist, French has been the Bulldogs’ team captain this season and is a four-year letterwinner. He qualified and competed at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials. He is ranked ninth all-time at Georgia in the 100-yard backstroke and finished eighth at the 2008 SEC Championships in the 100 back.

He has visited local schools, talking to children about the importance of setting goals. He also has participated in the Relay for Life. Upon graduation, French plans to attend dental school and has aspirations of becoming a dentist.

Kupets, a senior from Athens, Ga., has a 3.80 grade point average, majoring in Housing. She was a CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine First-Team Academic All-America in 2007 and a second-team performer in 2008. She is a three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll and the Gymnastics Coaches Association All-Academic Team. She is also a Dean’s List and Presidential Scholar at Georgia.

Athletically, Kupets won NCAA individual national titles in the all-around, bars and beam in 2006 and all-around and vault in 2007. In 2008, she suffered an injury keeping her from defending her NCAA titles. In 2007, she won the Honda Award as the most outstanding gymnast in the nation.

She is a 10-time First-Team All-American and has won nine SEC individual titles including the 2007 and 2009 all-arounds. Most recently, Kupets was chosen as the 2009 SEC Gymnast of the Year.

She was a member of the 2004 U.S. Olympics Team, earning a team silver medal and an individual bronze on the uneven bars.

She earned the 2008 Richard B. Russell Student Leadership Award from the Blue Key Honor Society and has been a volunteer with Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity and the SEC “Together We Can” food drive.

She plans to pursue a graduate degree in business administration or law and would like to develop housing in communities.

Q&A with Kit French

1 - What does being nominated for the McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Award mean to you?
 
Being nominated for this award is a great honor. I know that there are a lot of great candidates in the UGA athletic department and for me to be chosen really means a lot. It’s a very good feeling to be awarded for all the hard work that I have put in over my career here both in the pool and in the classroom.

2 - What are your favorite classes and why?
 
I am biology major and I think my favorite classes so far have been biochemistry and physiology. I liked these courses because they go in depth into how some of the body systems work. It gives me a much better understanding of how certain things affect my body and how specific diseases and illnesses work as well.
 
3 - What does it mean to compete as a student-athlete of your institution?
 
It is a great honor to be able to represent my school and team across the SEC and NCAA. We act almost like ambassadors around the country for our school and it gives me great pleasure to represent UGA in the best way I know how. It’s wonderful to know that I am able to give back to this university that has given me so much.
 
4 - What would you tell an incoming student at your institution on how to succeed in college?
 
The best way to succeed is to manage your time wisely. As a student-athlete, free time is very hard to come by and whenever you have some you have to take advantage of it. Also don’t be afraid to ask for help. The athletic association and the university as a whole offer so many ways to help students succeed. There is always someone who can help with whatever problems are facing you.
 
5 - What's the best part of the day?
 
I think the best part of the day for me is dinner. As soon as we get out of practice we walk right over to the dining hall for a meal. The food is great and it is the first time in the day where you can sit down and relax and just enjoy the company of your teammates. We could finish eating in about 20 minutes but might stay for an hour just to get in a little relaxation before we head back home for a night of studying.
 
6 - Plans for post-graduate education?

After graduation I plan on attending dental school. I am in the middle of the application process right now and won’t know if or where I am accepted until November or December of 2009. It has been a goal of mine for as along as I can remember to attend dental school then to go work alongside my father who is a general dentist in Cincinnati.
 
Q&A with Courtney Kupets
 
1 - What does being nominated for the McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Award mean to you?

Being nominated for the McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Award is a great honor. As a student-athlete there are times when I get exhausted from trying so hard in my sport and at schoolwork because I want everything I do to be the best I can do it. At times this gets overwhelming, but it is an award like this that shows me all my hard work is paying off.
 
 
2 - What are your favorite classes and why?
 
My favorite classes are those in which I learn things that are applicable to my real life and future situations. So there is no one class that I could say is my favorite. But for instance, my psychology class taught me so much just about people in general and characteristic traits that help me interact with people who before I could not relate to. More recently I took a consumer economics class where I learned about how to pay a mortgage, what goes into taxes, decision making when it comes to having a job and moving, all things that I will keep in mind when I come to the point in my life where I will do these things. To me a class where I learn something new and it helps me grow as a person is a class that is my favorite.

3 - What does it mean to compete as a student-athlete of your institution?
 
To be able to compete for the University of Georgia is the most amazing feeling. At the same time as I am getting an amazing education I get to defend our school's previous four-in-a-row NCAA titles for gymnastics. To be a part of such a historic program is an honor. I feel so connected because it is up to me and my team for this tradition to continue and even if we win or not it is up to us to handle ourselves with great sportsmanship to show the rest of our University that we do all we can to make them proud.

4 - What would you tell an incoming student at your institution on how to succeed in college?
 
To an incoming student I would tell them the way to succeed in college is to make sure you keep a balance and well-rounded lifestyle. As a freshman I was too serious and all I did was my sport, study, eat and sleep. Since then I have learned that having a social life is actually more important than I thought. To grow as a person you need friends, an education, and you need to stay active. If you keep a balance of all of these areas college will be a blast, and at the same time you will be succeeding.

5 - What's the best part of the day?
 
The best part of the day is the morning. I love waking up and realizing I have another day to get closer to fulfilling my dreams.
 
6 - Plans for post-graduate education?
 
My plans for post-graduate education are up in the air still. I have one year of undergraduate left and then I either want to get a Master's in Business or graduate from law school. In both of these choices I will be involved with housing and real estate with either my own business or as a real estate lawyer.

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