Two students in the MAIAA program at CBA made history by sweeping this year’s College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) postgraduate scholarships.
James Hajek from Omaha, Nebraska, received the $7,500 Wylie Smith Postgraduate Scholarship, given to a graduate in a media relations/sports information office who has expressed an interest in collegiate athletics communications. Lorie Garnett from Manteca, California, received the $7,500 Langston Rogers Postgraduate Scholarship, given annually to a rising minority or female student working in athletic communications/sports information who is interested in pursuing a career in intercollegiate athletic communications.
It is the first time two students attending the same institution swept the awards since 1997, when CoSIDA began offering two postgraduate scholarships. In addition, Erica Nett, a UNL MBA student, was the runner-up for the Langston Rogers scholarship.
Garnett earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Brigham Young University before also working in the BYU media relations office in 2013-14. She worked as an assistant sports information director at Utah Valley University prior to coming to UNL and currently works in the CBA Communications, Marketing and External Relations Office.
Hajek is in his second year of the program which includes a year-long, paid graduate assistantship with Nebraska Athletics. He currently serves as the women’s gymnastics and women’s bowling contact. He came to UNL after earning his undergraduate degree in business administration from Weber State University in Utah, where he also played basketball.
“Each year we receive numerous applications from a very talented and qualified applicant pool from across the country, so to see James and Lorie win national awards at a very early stage in our program’s development is tremendous. They demonstrate the caliber of student we admit into our program,” said Brandon Urry, program coordinator for MAIAA.
MAIAA website