Sara Rhine of the Drake University women's basketball team has been awarded one of the prestigious postgraduate scholarships from the NCAA. The scholarships are awarded to student-athletes who excel academically and athletically and who are at least in their final year of intercollegiate athletics competition.
The one-time non-renewable scholarships of $10,000 are awarded three times a year corresponding to each sport season (fall, winter and spring). Each sports season there are 21 scholarships available for men and 21 scholarships available for women for use in an accredited graduate program.
All former student-athletes who earned an undergraduate degree from an NCAA member school are eligible to be nominated by that school for an NCAA graduate degree scholarship, regardless of when they received their undergraduate degree.
Rhine's decorated playing career came to an abrupt end in mid-March due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. During her time at Drake, she earned numerous accolades for her academic and athletic successes.
Rhine was a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-American, including back-to-back first team honors the past two seasons. She was the first-ever three-time recipient of the Missouri Valley Conference Women's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, and was selected to the MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team three times.
Rhine finished her career with 2,186 points and 999 rebounds and is second all-time at Drake in career field goal percentage at 61.3. She was a four-time All-MVC selection, including being selected to the first team each of the past three seasons.
Rhine, who graduated with her bachelor's degree in elementary education with a 4.0 grade point average, is currently enrolled in Drake's master of counseling program and holds a 4.0 GPA in it. During her time at Drake, she was part of more than 5,000 community service hours completed by the women's basketball program.
Rhine will begin her professional basketball playing career in October with Club Polideportivo Bembibre in Spain.
The NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship was created in 1964 to promote and encourage graduate education by rewarding the Association's most accomplished student-athletes through their participation in NCAA championship and/or emerging sports. Athletics and academic achievements, campus involvement, community service, volunteer activities and demonstrated leadership are evaluated. An equitable approach is employed in reviewing an applicant's nomination form to provide all student-athlete nominees an opportunity to receive the graduate award, regardless of sport, division, gender or race. In maintaining the highest broad-based standards in the selection process, the program aims to reward those individuals whose dedication and effort are reflective of those characteristics necessary to succeed and thrive through graduate study.
