From Carnegie Mellon University Athletics
Carnegie Mellon University senior Emma Nicklas-Morris (Winston-Salem, N.C. / RJ Reynolds) has been awarded an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship for excelling academically and athletically while showing leadership and commitment to the community. Twenty-one males and 21 females across all three NCAA divisions were chosen as recipients for the winter sports. Nicklas-Morris was awarded the scholarship after four years of competition in the pool for the women's swimming and diving program.
Nicklas-Morris was selected from a group of nominees participating in basketball, bowling, fencing, gymnastics, ice hockey, indoor track and field, rifle, skiing, and swimming and diving.
The swimmer holds six school records for the Tartans and was due to swim at her fourth NCAA Championship meet before the competition was canceled due to COVID-19. Some of Nicklas-Morris's best swims came on the biggest stage as she earned three All-America honors and six All-America Honorable Mention honors in three years.
In her first appearance at the national meet, Nicklas-Morris finished fifth in the 400-yard IM and eighth in the 200-yard IM. She set four school records her freshman season and topped her previous school record in the 200-yard butterfly this year at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships.
The 2020 graduate with a degree in psychology and a double minor in art and design was named a College Sports Information Director of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District honoree in 2019. She currently carries a 3.88 GPA. Nicklas-Morris has taken courses at Rhode Island School of Design and studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, last summer after earning several scholarships to attend. She combines her passion for volunteering and art with the national organization Design for America. With the organization, Nicklas-Morris spends Sunday afternoon's at Pleasant Valley Men's Shelter where she leads a project called art2connect, giving members an outlet for expression. Nicklas-Morris was also a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) where she volunteered with Field Day and Special Olympics while joining other initiatives for SAAC.
Nicklas-Morris's postgraduate plans include a graphic design job in Houston, Texas, starting in August where she plans to work before pursuing graduate school to obtain her master's degree in design.
The NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship is awarded to student-athletes who excel academically and athletically, and are in their final year of intercollegiate athletics competition or have completed their athletic eligibility. The Association awards up to 126 postgraduate scholarships annually, 63 for men and 63 for women. This season's NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients (21 men and 21 women) represent spring sports participants, who will receive a one-time, nonrenewable grant of $10,000 to be used for graduate study within one year of the award.
Nicklas-Morris is the second Carnegie Mellon student-athlete to receive the scholarship this academic year, joining football senior Anthony Kennon in the fall.
The NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship was created in 1964 to promote and encourage postgraduate education by rewarding the Association's most accomplished student-athletes through their participation in NCAA championship and/or emerging sports.