Release courtesy of Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications
Spring 2020 NCAA Postgraduate Scholars (Men) | Spring 2020 NCAA Postgraduate Scholars (Women)
BALTIMORE, MD – Former Johns Hopkins track & field standouts Jennifer Su and Zach Shelley have been awarded prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships it was recently announced. Su and Shelley were among the 42 spring athletes (21 men / 21 women) selected from all divisions of the NCAA to receive the $10,000 award as they pursue advanced degrees.
The selection of Su and Shelley gives Johns Hopkins four NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients for the 2019-20 academic year; the four selections ties the school record for most in one year. Johns Hopkins has produced at least one NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipient in each of the last seven years with 14 total recipients during that time.
In addition, the four selections this year boost the total number of all-time Johns Hopkins NCAA Postgraduate Scholars to 50.
Su, who becomes the third member of the Johns Hopkins women's track & field program to earn the award (all three have come since 2017), is entering her second year of medical school at Rutgers University after graduating from Johns Hopkins in 2018 with a degree in neuroscience and a 3.93 cumulative grade point average.
One of the most decorated field athletes in recent Johns Hopkins history, Su held indoor school records in the pentathlon and long jump and outdoor school records in the heptathlon, long jump and 100-meter hurdles when she graduated. She still holds six of the program's top nine all-time performances in the heptathlon and broke the 4,500-point mark three times to account for three of just four such efforts in school history.
Su earned All-America honors in the heptathlon at the 2016 NCAA Championships with a fifth-place finish, claimed pentathlon titles at the 2016 and 2018 Centennial Conference Indoor Track Championships and added Centennial Conference Outdoor and ECAC Outdoor heptathlon titles as a senior in 2018.
In addition to her individual accomplishments, Su also helped Johns Hopkins win four Centennial Conference Indoor and Outdoor Track titles.
In addition to her athletic exploits, Su earned CoSIDA Academic All-District honors twice, was named to the Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll as a sophomore, junior and senior and earned USTFCCCA All-Academic honors three times.
Su, who aspires to a career in sports medicine, has been involved in a number of service, leadership and other extra-curricular activities. She has served as a volunteer at an oncology center and as an at-home personal aide to a patient with multiple sclerosis and worked as a research assistant at a memory lab and at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.
Shelley, who will enroll in Law School at Yale later this summer, was a key member of the Johns Hopkins Men's Track & Field team that won Centennial Conference Indoor and Outdoor titles four times each during his career.
Shelley anchored Johns Hopkins' Centennial Conference Outdoor Champion 4x400-meter relay team as a junior and senior and also won the individual title in the 400-meter dash as a senior in 2018.
In addition to his three Centennial outdoor titles, Shelley placed second in the 400-meter dash as a junior and added second and third-place finishes in the 400-meter hurdles as a junior and seniors, respectively.
Shelley grabbed a Centennial indoor title in the 4x400 as a junior and added runner-up finishes in the 4x400 and the 400 as a senior. When he graduated, he was a member of the school-record-holding 4x200 (1:29.04), 4x400 (3:18.49) and distance medley relay (10:14.51) teams and each of those marks still stands.
A CoSIDA Academic All-District selection as a senior, Shelley was also named the USTFCCCA All-America Team that year and earned a total of six Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll nods (three indoor / three outdoor).
Shelley graduated from Johns Hopkins with a degree in economics and a 3.83 cumulative grade point average. He is just the second member of the Johns Hopkins men's track & field program to earn an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship as he joins John Robinson '91 on this distinguished list.
Shelley has worked as a Research Fellow at the Yale Law School since June of 2019. Among his initiatives have been conducting econometric analysis in Stata, and drafting manuscripts on behavorial economics, gun law and public policy design.
In addition, Shelley has provided research assistance on a number of published books and articles and recently had an article published in the Los Angeles Times. He currently has three additional articles under review.
After graduating from Johns Hopkins, Shelley spent one year as an analyst as he managed data analysis and replication of academic publications to support FTC filings and collaborated with academic experts and other team members to distill economic analysis into strategic insights for antitrust, insurance and commercial litigation.
While at Johns Hopkins, Shelley completed internships with a United States Senator, the Maryland Department of Commerce and the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, was the Head PILOT Learning Leader in the University's Office of Academic Support and was a research assistant in the department of political science.