SAN FRANCISCO - Washington State track and field competitors Forrest Shaffer and Dominique Keel were among the 23 outstanding student-athletes who have been named recipients of Pac-12 Postgraduate Scholarships for the 2015-16 academic year.
 
The scholarships, worth $9,000 each, are awarded to up to two student-athletes from each Pac-12 school annually. These worthy student-athletes maintained a minimum 3.0 grade point average and demonstrated a commitment to education, campus and community involvement, and leadership.
 
Keel, from Beaverton, Ore., was a sprinter who ran WSU school top ten marks in the 60m dash (7.57i -7th), in the 200m (23.74 - 5th), and on both the 4x100m relay squad (44.61 - 2nd) and the 4x400m relay (3:36.76 - 4th) where she earned All-America honorable mention. Keel was the women's track events captain in 2016 and served at the WSU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) president as a junior. She earned the 2015 Exceptional Senior Award from the WSU Sociology department, given to a rising senior who excels in classes in the major. At the 2015 senior luncheon, Keel was awarded the Cougar Pride Award, given to one male and one female senior who has maintained over a 3.00 cumulative GPA and has displayed exceptional academic, athletic and outstanding personal qualities. She was also given the Senior Excellence in Academics award, given to seniors who have earned a minimum of 90 credits with at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA, been members of the WSU Athletics All-Academic Team each semester, enrolled at WSU for at least two years, and excelled in their degree program and sport program. Keel has been a leader in her Pullman church and has career-aspirations to work with at-risk children and families. She will study social work at the graduate level at the University of Southern California.
 
Shaffer, from Petaluma, Calif., was a key member of the cross country team and a steeplechase specialist in track. He scored three consecutive years in the 3000m steeplechase at the Pac-12 Championships (2014 - 6th, 2015 -7th, 2016 - 7th). Last spring, Shaffer won an award at WSU's Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (SURCA) where he was among 235 students presenting over 200 posters. His poster, "Ion Channel Profiling in Vagal Afferent Neurons," was one of four in the Molecular, Cellular and Chemical Biology division that won second-highest honors. Shaffer's interest in neuroscience is closely associated with his running: studying the communication between brain and body in the areas of feeding, metabolism and pain. For the past three years Forrest has worked in the WSU Neurobiology lab with his mentor, Dr. James Peters, an assistant professor in the Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience department. Shaffer's research studies how neutral mechanisms control food intake: how the vegus nerve innovates the gut and the brain and how it controls what is eaten, when it is eaten and why humans get hungry. He plans to obtain a doctorate degree in neuroscience at WSU and continue his research.
 
To be selected for a Pac-12 Postgraduate Scholarship, a student-athlete must have:

• Maintained an overall undergraduate minimum cumulative grade-point average of 3.00 (based on a 4.00 scale);
• Completed his/her final season of intercollegiate athletics eligibility in all sports or be in his/her final year of undergraduate study, having exhausted athletics eligibility in all sports;
• Been accepted to or already be enrolled as a full-time student in a graduate or professional program at an accredited institution, or in a postgraduate program for which an undergraduate degree is required for admission;
• Performed with distinction as a member of a varsity team; and
• Exemplified behavior, both in competition and beyond, in a manner that has brought credit to the student-athlete, the institution, and intercollegiate athletics.

 
"This year's recipients are excellent representatives of the Pac-12 and wonderful examples of the power of collegiate sports to help young people reach their goals," said Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott. "We are honored to help these student-athletes continue their education and look forward to watching them positively impact their communities."
 
In 1999, the Postgraduate Scholarship Program was created to both honor and financially assist some of the Conference's most outstanding athletes and scholars as they continue their educations. In a program change from previous years, the Pac-12 now annually awards up to 24 scholarships of $9,000 each to former and graduating student-athletes across the conference. Through its institutional selection process, each Pac-12 institution may select two student-athletes, one man and one woman, to be awarded the scholarship.