News from Illinois Wesleyan

May 1, 2002
Contact: Stewart Salowitz, 309/556-3206

IWU Senior Kyle Eash Wins Walter Byers Scholarship

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- Illinois Wesleyan University senior Kyle Eash has been named the male recipient of the 2002 Walter Byers Scholarship from the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The Byers scholarship is given annually to one male and one female student-athlete in recognition of outstanding academic achievement and potential for success in postgraduate study.

The recipients will receive $12,500 the first year of graduate school and can renew the grant for a second year as long as they provide evidence of satisfactory performance and progress.

The son of Norm and Cheryl Eash of Bloomington, Kyle is weighing his postgraduate medical school opportunities and has narrowed his list of medical school choices to Yale, Washington (Mo.), the University of Illinois, Vanderbilt and Northwestern.

Eash, who was among 20 male students who met the qualifying standards for the scholarship, is the first recipient from IWU to receive the national award, which covers Division I, II and III athletics.

The female winner was Claudia Veritas from Wellesley College, who played lacrosse and was voted Northeast 10 Athletic Conference "Player of the Year" in 2000 and was her team's captain the last two years. A Goffstown, N.H., native, Veritas is a political science major with a 3.86 grade-point average and was a Rhodes scholarship semi-finalist in 2001. In 1998, Veritas worked for two months attending to patients at Mother Teresa's Kalighat Clinc for the sick and dying in Calcutta, India, and she is the co-author of a book on child abuse. She would like to become a child advocate and study for a master's of philosophy in sociology at England's Oxford University.

Kyle Eash

Eash is a double major in biology and business with a grade-point average of 3.99 (on a 4.0 scale). He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa undergraduate honors organization; Phi Kappa Phi, national scholastic honorary for juniors and seniors; and Beta Beta Beta, national science honorary. He recently won a scholarship from Phi Kappa Phi.

In February Eash was one of 20 students chosen to the USA Today's 13th annual All-USA College Academic Team, and last November, he was the recipient of a Lincoln Laureate Award as one of 49 college students to be recognized for excellence by the Lincoln Academy of Illinois. Eash is also the recipient of one of 52 $8,000 fellowships awarded by the Phi Kappa Phi national honor society.

He is the co-author of four academic scientific papers -- "A Simple Chemoselective Method for the Deprotection of Acetals and Ketals Using Bismuth Nitrate Pentahydrate", published in "Journal of Organic Chemistry"; "Deprotection of Ketoximes Using Bismuth Nitrate Pentahydrate", published in the journal "Synthesis"; and two other scientific papers have been published in the journal "Tetrahedron Letters."

A poster presentation of Eash's was featured at the 125th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in August 2001.

A three-year football letterman, Eash was a co-captain of the 2001 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin co-championship team and led the CCIW in pass efficiency. Eash was elected to the Verizon District Five College Division all-academic football team and was on the Academic All-America national ballot. He has also been a member of the IWU track team and currently serves as the chair of the CCIW student advisory committee.
Eash has served as a volunteer for the local Big Brothers program and has been a participant in the local Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk fundraiser. He has been the philanthropy chairman for the local Sigma Chi fraternity chapter and has been treasurer of the IWU Interfraternity Council.

An IWU Presidential Scholar, he is a member of the president's panel for multi-talented students, serves on the IWU student-alumni council, and has addressed alumni groups and potential students.

Byers Scholarship Program

The Byers Scholarship Program was established in 1988 to recognize the contributions of the former NCAA executive director (Walter Byers), and it was developed to encourage excellence in academic performance by student-athletes. The student-athletes are chosen in recognition of outstanding academic achievement and potential for success in postgraduate study in his or her planned career. A Byers Scholar is recognized as an individual who has combined the best elements of mind and body to achieve national distinction for his or her achievements, and who promises to be a future leader in his or her chosen field.

Award recipients are required to have at least a 3.500 grade-point average (4.000 scale), show evidence of superior character and leadership, and demonstrate that participation in athletics has been a positive influence on personal and intellectual development, among other qualifications.

Kyle Eash