Olivia Jenks and Kira Stanley Receive NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship
Senior Sun Devil triathletes Olivia Jenks and Second Team All-American and 2021 National Champion Kira Stanley have received the NCAA postgraduate scholarship, which is only given to 126 postgraduate scholarships annually to former and current colligate athletes who are in their final year of competition.
Jenks and Stanley are both a part of the five-time national champion Sun Devil triathlon team, with both being named to the Pac-12 2021 Fall academic honor roll last month for maintaining a 3.3 GPA or above. Both Jenks and Stanley join Sun Devil triathletes Kyla Roy and Charlotte Ahrens who've won the postgraduate scholarship in 2021 and in 2020.
Stanley, placed in 12th at the 2021 National Championships, helping bring the Sun Devils its fifth straight national championship as a triathlon program, as a sophomore in 2019, Stanley finished in 16th place securing the Sun Devils then fourth straight national title. Jenks is majoring in biological sciences while Stanley is majoring in marketing while being a part of the Triathlon team at Arizona State. When Stanley found out she was a recipient of the postgraduate scholarship, she couldn't believe it.
"I was shocked honestly, I almost didn't apply because I didn't think that I would get it, it was highly competitive. I know a few girls in the past and on our team had gotten it, so I just kind of like last minute." Stanley said. "It's even sweeter to be selected with Olivia since I've known her since I was 10, it's super awesome to win this award with her."
Stanley is expected to graduate this May with an undergraduate degree in marketing, but is excited to start her masters program in digital audience strategy in July. She is currently interning with Signing Day Sports as as social media intern, which is a new company founded in 2020 that tries to get high school athletes discovered and recruited by universities across the country. She is excited to be able to have the ability to focus on her life after triathlon since she's been a triathlete since the age of six. Going into college she thought she wanted to be a psychologist, but that quickly changed with getting into marketing.
"Being able to be in marketing and tell the story of every athlete or every person, Every team that not a lot of people gets to hear and giving those athletes a voice is really important to me. So that's where I found my love of marketing and sports put together and telling the story behind the athlete." Stanley says.
The post graduate scholarship is a one-time $10,000 award corresponding to each sports season for the fall, winter and spring. Each sports season 21 male and 21 female scholarships are available for use in an accredited graduate program.