UMBC Student Named Top U.S. Scholar-Athlete
Meyerhoff Scholar Isaac Matthews, a senior mechanical engineering major and a four-year track and field letterman, was recently named the 2007 Arthur Ashe Jr. Male Sports Scholar of the Year.” The award is given annually by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine to the U.S. female and male athletes who best combine athletic and academic excellence with community activism.
LaMont Toliver, director of the Meyerhoff program, described Matthews in an April 5 Diverse cover story as “the prototype for a scholar-athlete with the potential to be the Paul Robeson of our time. He’s that well rounded.”
Matthews, who has a 3.88 grade point average, will graduate in May with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He has been accepted to prestigious engineering graduate programs at MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, Michigan and Illinois.
During his athletic career at UMBC, Matthews finished seventh in the 2005 America East Indoor Championships 800-meter run, placed eighth in the 2004 America East Outdoor Championships and was named a Toyota Athlete of the Week in 2003.
In addition, Matthews is well known on campus as a dedicated mentor and tutor to young African-American middle and high school students and as an accomplished cello player. He serves as treasurer for UMBC’s chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers and gives motivational talks to NASA Sharp students.
In the Diverse cover story, Matthews discussed his lifelong quest to shatter stereotypes about black students and the challenges of mentoring the younger generation. “There are more black doctors than there are basketball players, but you don’t see the image As the numbers increase, as you have more black engineers, professors, that image can be defeated by the numbers.”
(4/30/07)
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