Tennessee senior rower Gia Hodges has earned a NCAA postgraduate scholarship, while being named a Giant Steps honoree.
Hodges is from Morristown Hamblen High School East in Morristown, Tennessee.
UT press release:
Tennessee senior rower Gia Hodges continued to garner recognition for her academic success and personal perseverance, earning an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and being named a Giant Steps Courageous Student-Athlete.
Hodges, who recently earned bachelor’s degrees in Neuroscience and Psychology with an impressive 3.97 GPA, was named the Big 12 Rowing Scholar-Athlete of the Year earlier this month. The Morristown, Tennessee, native was accepted to the ETSU Quillen College of Medicine and began her journey toward becoming a doctor on July 12.
The NCAA awards just 13 Women’s Enhancement Postgraduate Scholarships every year, and this marks the sixth time in the last seven years that a Tennessee rower has been a recipient. Past recipients are Kathryn Cosgrove (2019), Jennifer Davis (2018), Chandler Frumin (2017), Harper Lucas (2016) and Sarah McAuliffe (2015).
Hodges received the 2021 Giant Steps Courageous Student-Athlete recognition from the Institute for Sport and Social Justice. Recipients of the award are selected after displaying courage, heroism, triumph in the face of adversity, and community activism through the power of sport. The epitome of a courageous student-athlete, Hodges was also named a 2021 Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Award recipient, which honors student-athletes who have overcome great personal, academic, and/or emotional odds to achieve academic success while participating in intercollegiate athletics.
The three-time Big 12 Academic All-Conference First Team honoree also excelled in competition. She helped Tennessee’s 2V8 group finish 16th in the country at the NCAA Championships. Her boat also won two of three races in the 2V8 at the Big Ten Invitational, besting No. 7 Alabama, No. 15 Wisconsin, and No. 17 Minnesota on day one, and edging out No. 17 Minnesota, Notre Dame, and Michigan State on day two.
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