Every month, NFL Player Engagment and Scholar Baller highlight a high school or college football student-athlete for their outstanding performance in the classroom and community. This month's Scholar Baller of the Month is John Urschel, Senior Offensive Guard at Penn State University.
John Urschel: A True Scholar-Baller®
- On December 10, 2013, Urschel was awarded the prestigious William V. Campbell Trophy, an academic honor that is awarded to the NCAA student-athlete who best combines academic success, football performance and community leadership.
- Urschel is currently one of ten finalists for the Senior CLASS Award, which is “The Nation’s Premier Award for NCAA Senior Student-Athletes” (award based on community, classroom, character, and competition).
- In April 2013, Urschel was named recipient of the Ernest B. McCoy Memorial Award, presented annually by Penn State University for athletic and academic excellence.
- Named first team Academic All-American in 2012 and 2013. Urschel is also a three-time Academic All Big Ten Honoree. Urschel was also twice named first team All Big Ten as a guard on the Penn State football team.
- Earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in May 2012 with a 4.0 GPA (note: he earned degree in less than three years). In addition, Urschel earned a master’s degree in mathematics in May 2013, again with a 4.0 GPA. Urschel is currently working on a second master’s degree in math education. Urschel plans to earn a PhD in mathematics after he finishes his football playing career.
- Has taught college-level courses including Integral Vector Calculus and Trigonometry and Analytic Geometry.
- Authored a journal article titled “Instabilities of the Sun-Jupiter-Asteroid Three Body Problem” that was published in Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy. Recently had a second paper accepted for publication, “A Space-Time Multigrid Method for the Numerical Valuation of Barrier Options,” for publication in the journal Communications in Mathematical Finance.
“You can only play football for so long. . . .You can always come back to math."
~ John Urschel