Fourth in a series
CoSIDA’s Postgraduate Scholarship program began in 1981 and celebrated its 35th anniversary just last year. As a follow-up to a feature in the February edition of CoSIDA 360 magazine that caught up with a number of past scholarship recipients, this series will go in-depth with several winners in a Q&A format.
For more information regarding the deadlines – all in April 2017 – for the 2017 postgraduate scholarship and other CoSIDA scholarships and grants, go to
http://www.cosida.com/sports/2014/1/30/scholarshipgrants_program.aspx
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CoSIDA Postgraduate Scholarship Recipients – Where Are They Now? Akilah Laster
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CoSIDA Postgraduate Scholarship Recipients – Where Are They Now? Jared Verner
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CoSIDA Postgraduate Scholarship Recipients – Where Are They Now? Beth Haag
Jeff Griesch and family.
Jeff Griesch (1996 & 1997)
Current position: Senior Associate Communications Director/ Operations at the University of Nebraska & Chair, CoSIDA Scholarships Committee
Undergraduate school: University of Nebraska
Graduate school: University of Nebraska
How did receiving a CoSIDA postgraduate scholarship (not just once, but twice) help you with your education and in pursuing your professional goals?
Receiving the CoSIDA Postgraduate Scholarship allowed me to remain at Nebraska and begin focusing on a career in athletic media relations. I spent less than two semesters in media relations as an undergraduate and wasn’t sure it was the direction I wanted to go professionally. The scholarships allowed me to dive head-first into media relations on a full-time basis for nationally ranked women’s soccer and wrestling teams while also working directly with two national championship football teams.
The funds from those scholarships not only allowed me to pay for two years of graduate school, they allowed me to stay at Nebraska for the final two years of my wife’s undergraduate education. They helped us get married and plan a life in the profession. A home-grown Husker, I have now worked at Nebraska for 20 years, and my wife Emily and I have four kids who have grown up loving the Huskers and college sports.
Currently at Nebraska, I am responsible for hiring our staff of students, graduate interns and coordinating volunteers with other undergraduate and graduate programs from other schools. This year, our undergraduate and graduate staff is approaching 20 aspiring young professionals. I emphasize academics in my hiring and we have outstanding success in not only shaping students to help our goals, but provide them with the tools to get great jobs after college and pursue graduate educations of their own. It is truly rewarding work for me.
Why did you decide to join the scholarship committee and ultimately become its chair?
My first boss at Nebraska, Chris Anderson, was instrumental in getting me to apply for the CoSIDA Postgraduate Scholarship as a member of the committee at that time. When she moved to other areas in our administration, she provided me with an opportunity to replace her on the committee. I was honored and loved the opportunity to help others in this important mission of CoSIDA. When the great Carol Hudson from Old Dominion decided to retire and step aside as committee chair two years ago, he offered the chair position to me and I immediately accepted. Carol, Paul Just and so many others have done such great work in growing the reach of CoSIDA Scholarships that it was humbling for me to follow them. I just hope I can continue to move our committee forward and grow the reach of our benefits to the current and future members of CoSIDA.
What do you hope CoSIDA’s scholarships do for current and future applicants?
Our main focus right now is to increase the reach of our Member-Child Scholarship program that Paul Just envisioned many years ago. We would like to not only offer two new $1,000 scholarships each year, but we would like those scholarships to become automatically renewable for our winners to help provide financial assistance throughout their undergraduate careers.
We would also love to partner with our Academic All-America® program in some way to benefit the best student-athletes in the nation. This is a topic we have discussed and is kind of in its infancy stages, but I believe so strongly in both the CoSIDA Scholarship and CoSIDA Academic All-America® programs that it seems like a natural progression.
Finally, as the costs of college tuition and expenses increase annually throughout the nation, I believe we will need to address the size of our current scholarships and expanding the amount of help we can provide our individual undergraduate and graduate scholarship program winners.