Colonials senior forward Tara Booker is the 2012 female recipient of the Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association Postgraduate Scholarship, and is one of 11 student-athletes named to the association’s women’s basketball Scholar-Athlete Team.
Booker majors in sociology and organizational sciences with a 3.38 grade-point average. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree in sociology in three and a half years, and is currently enrolled in an organizational sciences graduate program at GW. The ADA scholarship will grant Booker $5,000 toward postgraduate studies.
Booker finished the 2011-12 season as the Colonials’ top rebounder, averaging 7.0 rebounds per game, and the team’s second-leading scorer, averaging 12.0 points per game. Booker, GW’s captain, ranks sixth all-time in program history with 162 career three-pointers, and is 13th with 599 rebounds. She will likely return to the Colonials next season with extra eligibility on a medical hardship waiver.
Basketball players from all Division I-AAA ADA member institutions, the 99 Division I institutions that do not sponsor football, are eligible for the Scholar-Athlete Teams. The teams’ required qualifications include a minimum 3.20 GPA in undergraduate study, and the player must have been a starter or important reserve, reached at least junior athletics and academic standing, completed at least three academic semesters and participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s games.