May 5, 2017
NOTRE DAME, Indiana – Two Notre Dame graduate soccer players, Evan Panken and Michael Shipp, as well as former Fighting Irish football player and University Student Body President Corey Robinson, are all the recipient of one of the NCAA’s most prestigious honors — an NCAA postgraduate scholarship. Panken, Shipp and Robinson are the 56th, 57th and 58th Notre Dame student-athletes to win the award.
The NCAA postgraduate scholarships are one-time, non-renewable educational grants of $7,500. Fifty-eight student-athletes — 29 men and 29 women — are recipients from the fall season. Annually, the NCAA awards 174 postgraduate scholarships to 87 men and 87 women for fall, winter and spring sports.
To qualify for an NCAA postgraduate scholarship, a student-athlete must be nominated by his or her athletic department, have an overall grade point average of 3.2 (on a 4.0 scale) or its equivalent, and must have performed with distinction as a member of the varsity team in the sport in which he or she was nominated. The student-athlete must have behaved, both on and off the field, in a manner that has brought credit to the student-athlete, the institution and intercollegiate athletics. The student-athlete also must intend to continue academic work beyond the baccalaureate degree as a full-time or part-time graduate student.
Panken became the first Notre Dame men’s soccer player to be recognized on the Atlantic Coast Conference All-Academic Team in each of his four seasons in the league, adding to his all-ACC third team performance in 2016. He started all 21 matches in the Irish midfield as a team tri-captain last season, scoring two game-winning goals and adding six assists for 10 points.
Panken played the full 90 minutes in Notre Dame’s 2-1 win over Maryland in the 2013 NCAA College Cup final, helping guide the Irish to the first national championship in program history. Notre Dame added a pair of ACC regular-season championships in 2013 and 2014 (Coastal Division) during Panken’s tenure.
One of the top 10 assist men in Notre Dame men’s soccer history (22 career assists), Panken graduated with a degree in pre-professional studies and Spanish from the College of Science in the spring of 2016. He has been accepted into medical school at Northwestern University.
Shipp returned to the ACC All-Academic Team for the second straight season as a graduate team tri-captain in 2016. He was a member of the Notre Dame defensive corps for all 21 matches and played a key role in all nine Irish shutouts during the year. Shipp also earned 2015 CoSIDA Academic All-America first team honors during his first full season as a starter on the Notre Dame back line, scoring a career-high five points and contributing to eight clean sheets.
A three-time Rockne Student-Athlete Award recipient (2013, 2015 and a tri-winner with Panken and Mark Gormley in 2016), Shipp also claimed 2013 NCAA Elite 89 Award (top GPA on Division I men’s soccer) accolades during Notre Dame’s national championship run at that season’s NCAA College Cup in Chester, Pennsylvania. Like Panken, he was a member of two Irish ACC regular-season conference championship squads during his career.
Shipp graduated with a degree in pre-professional studies and Spanish from the College of Science in the spring of 2016, and has been accepted into medical school at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Robinson graduated with a degree from the prestigious program of liberal studies, added a minor in sustainability and boasted a 3.836 cumulative grade-point average. He will spend a summer internship in New York at Gagosian, a contemporary art gallery.
Robinson was the first football student-athlete in school history to hold the honor of Notre Dame Student Body President. A first-team Capital One CoSIDA First-Team Academic All-American in 2014, Robinson was the first sophomore at a NCAA Division I institution to earn first-team Academic All-America honors since 2008 and only the fourth sophomore to attain first-team status since 2002.
He was named to the dean’s list following each of his eight semesters on campus. Robinson captured the 2015 Francis Patrick O’Connor Award, which honored male and female Notre Dame student-athletes who best display the total embodiment of the true spirit of the University as exemplified by their contributions to their respective teams.
A member of Notre Dame’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), Robinson chaired the Student-Athlete Advisory Council’s IrishOn3 initiative. He participated in the Rosenthal Leadership Academy and served on the Notre Dame Student Government Executive Cabinet, assisting the University’s International and Undergraduate Admissions Office.
Robinson, two-time Rhodes Scholar applicant and one-time finalist, served as a student assistant for Notre Dame in 2016 after a three-year career as a wide receiver. He played in 38 games and started five. He finished his career with 65 catches for 896 yards and seven touchdowns.
Panken and Shipp join Matt Besler (2009), Harrison Shipp (2014) and Patrick Hodan (2016) as recipients from men’s soccer.
Robinson becomes the first Notre Dame football player to receive the honor since 2008 when John Carlson earned a postgraduate scholarship. He is the 18th winner from football, joining Fred Schnurr (1967), Jim Smithberger (1968), George Kunz (1969), Mike Oriard (1970), Larry DiNardo (1971), Tom Gatewood (1972), Greg Marx (1973), Dave Casper (1974), Pete Demmerle (1975), Reggie Barnett (1975), Joe Restic (1979), Tom Gibbons (1980), John Krimm (1981), Greg Dingens (1985), Reggie Ho (1988), Tim Ruddy (1993) and Carlson (2008).
Notre Dame All-Time NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Recipients
1966 – Ed Dean (Track and Field)
1967 – Fred Schnurr (Football)
1967 – Jack Haynes (Fencing)
1968 – Jim Smithberger (Football)
1968 – Mike Daher (Fencing)
1969 – Bob Arnzen (Basketball)
1969 – George Kunz (Football)
1969 – Bill Hurd (Track and Field)
1970 – Mike Oriard (Football)
1971 – Larry DiNardo (Football)
1972 – Tom Gatewood (Football)
1973 – Greg Marx (Football)
1974 – Dave Casper (Football)
1974 – Gary Novak (Basketball)
1975 – Pete Demmerle (Football)
1975 – Reggie Barnett (Football)
1975 – Paul Angelo (Fencing)
1979 – Joe Restic (Football)
1980 – Tom Gibbons (Football)
1980 – Greg Meredith (Hockey)
1981 – John Krimm (Football)
1982 – Jeannine Blatt (Swimming)
1983 – John Paxson (Basketball)
1983 – Steve Dziabis (Track and Field)
1985 – Greg Dingens (Football)
1986 – John Krug (Wrestling)
1988 – Reggie Ho (Football)
1992 – Heidi Piper (Fencing)
1993 – Tim Ruddy (Football)
1997 – Jeremy Siek (Fencing)
1997 – Jen Renola (Soccer)
1998 – Jaimie Lee (Volleyball)
1998 – Pat Garrity (Basketball)
1999 – Jennifer Hall (Tennis)
2000 – Jenny Streiffer (Soccer)
2001 – Ruth Riley (Basketball)
2001 – Jen Sharron (Softball)
2004 – Vanessa Pruzinsky (Soccer)
2006 – Stacey Cowan (Track and Field)
2007 – Ted Brown (Swimming)
2007 – Maryann Erigha (Track and Field)
2007 – Stephanie Brown (Softball)
2008 – John Carlson (Football)
2008 – Brett Lilley (Baseball)
2009 – Matt Besler (Soccer)
2009 – Brittany Bock (Soccer)
2009 – Lauren Buck (Rowing)
2009 – Patrick Smyth (Cross Country)
2011 – Lauren Fowlkes (Soccer)
2013 – Kim Holden (Swimming)
2014 – Harrison Shipp (Soccer)
2014 – Elizabeth Tucker (Soccer)
2015 – Ashley Armstrong (Golf)
2015 – Anna Kottkamp (Rowing)
2015 – Emma Reaney (Swimming)
2016 – Patrick Hodan (Soccer)
2017 – Evan Panken (Soccer)
2017 – Michael Shipp (Soccer)
2017 – Corey Robinson (Football) — ND —
Michael Bertsch, director of football media relations at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2006. An Akron, Ohio, native, he graduated from Walsh University (Ohio) in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in communications and also received his master’s degree in health and physical education with an emphasis in sports administration from Marshall University in 2001.