Tharenos Wooster’s Latest NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Selection

The College of Wooster's Athena Tharenos was notified by the NCAA that she is one of the 21 female spring student-athletes set to receive the one-time, non-renewable $10,000 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Tharenos is Wooster's 16th NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship selection since 2018 and the second this academic year.

"If you had told me four years ago that I would one day not only find myself the recipient of a NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, and plan to utilize it to help fund my studies at the University of Oxford, I would have easily laughed at the very notion," said Tharenos. "It is this unique type of success and new wave of confidence that Wooster is best suited to encourage and engender in its students that helped me achieve this scholarship. I owe a good deal of my accomplishments to date to those many Wooster acquaintances who have stood by and supported me in all my ambitious endeavors. I would like to thank the elite team who helped make this specific scholarship opportunity possible – my assiduous coach, Dennis Rice, my inspiring educationist, Amyaz Moledina, my unwavering believer, Shelley Judge, and of course, my chief adherent and lifelong mentor, Mark Wilson. It has been an honor and a privilege to participate in and be part of the collegiate athletics community at Wooster for these past four wonderful years."

"Athena excelled at the highest level academically and athletically," added Dennis Rice, Wooster's head cross country and track and field coach. "Athena had excellent self-discipline handling a high academic workload with a positive attitude while also having the strength and mindset to excel in cross country and track and field. Athena amazed me with her ability to balance her training and team responsibilities with her commitment to reaching her highest potential academically as a triple major. Athena showed great passion for cross country and track and field, with dedication to training and competition as she pursued academic excellence."

Tharenos, Wooster's nominee for NCAA Woman of the Year and the North Coast Athletic Conference's Pam Smith Award, earned three U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Great Lakes Region honors in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Over her distinguished four-year career, Tharenos was a 12-time All-NCAC and 10-time All-Ohio performer across cross country, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field.

Tharenos' breakthrough came as a sophomore, when she earned first-team All-NCAC honors in cross country, with her sixth-place showing marking the program's top individual placement since W Association Hall of Famer Katie Wieferich won the 2006 individual title. Tharenos led Wooster to a third-place conference finish in cross country as a sophomore and helped the program finish as one of three Div. III programs with at least three All-Ohio performers. Tharenos was instrumental in helping Wooster to a runner-up NCAC indoor track and field finish as a sophomore, debuting at indoor conference with three All-NCAC certificates.

Later, Tharenos broke the program's 3,000-meter steeplechase record with a time of 11:03.59 at the NCAC Championships and lowered it to 10:58.09 at the NCAC outdoor championships as a senior, with that ranking as the winning time. Tharenos became a 1,500 meters Egyptian national champion while studying abroad at The American University of Cairo.

The alumna's Independent Study looked at how land on Rhodes is a tangible symbol of intangible forms of wealth, and weighed the consequent opportunities and obstacles associated with Arctic cryosphere degradation. The anthropology, geoscience, and Chinese studies major's research in Egypt was focused on conceiving and implementing a sustainable development project as an independent partner of GIZ's agricultural branch in Dokki.

Tharenos created a comprehensive curriculum to engage Egyptian university students in learning Mandarin while studying abroad. She assigned and graded homework as a Chinese language teacher and facilitated class lectures and role-play dialogues. Tharenos facilitated campus-wide cultural events. Additionally, Tharenos' work as a virtual English teacher through Fragrance Tree English resulted in an in-person opportunity to continue with the organization upon graduation.

Tharenos will begin her pursuit of a master's of philosophy degree in developmental studies at the University of Oxford this academic year.

Of note, Tharenos is Wooster's 30th all-time NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipient and the third from the track and field program. Wooster's cross country and track and field program has had a NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipient in consecutive years, as alumna Isabelle Hoover was chosen last academic year. Wooster finished tied for first-place across the entire NCAA (Div. I, Div. II, Div. III) for most selections during the 2021-22 academic year, and the Fighting Scots have finished in the top-five for recipients three times since 2018.