STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Stony Brook Athletics benefits from strong support from its alumni and other friends of the program.
And on Saturday, the department showed its gratitude to a group of those benefactors.
Student-athletes receiving athletic scholarships endowed by donations had the chance to meet and thank the benefactors funding their aid inside the Goldstein Family Student-Athlete Development Center before Saturday's men's basketball game against Maine.
Endowed scholarship recipients include Johnny Decker and Chris Hamilton (baseball), Makale Foreman, Andrew Garcia, Anthony Ochefu and Elijah Olaniyi (men's basketball), India Pagan, Kina Smith and Anastasia Warren (women's basketball), Augie Contressa, Terrell Morrison and Mason Zimmerman (football), Harrison Matsuoka, Caleb Pearson and Chris Pickel Jr. (men's lacrosse), Kailyn Hart, Taryn Ohlmiller and Rayna Sabella (women's lacrosse), Matias Prando (men's soccer), Francesca Lee (women's soccer), Nicole McCarvill, Melissa Rahrich (softball), Sara Chin (swimming), Maria Pinto Ribeiro (tennis), Cameron Avery (men's track & field), Clodagh O'Reilly (women's track & field), and Jordan Gels and Julia Kim (volleyball).
"I am the first generation in my family to attend college here in the United States, and staying away from home is all new to my family," said Prando, who was raised in Yorktown, N.Y. "So we had to figure out how everything was going to work. Stony Brook was a great option financially for me and my parents, and because I was given a scholarship, it helped me and my family."
Said Pinto Ribeiro, who hails from Portugal: "When I made the decision in high school that I wanted to pursue my college degree in America, I knew that the only way I could ever afford it would be through a full athletic scholarship. As a consequence, I had to reject some offers because I couldn't afford college in America. Luckily, Stony Brook gave me the best of both worlds — an amazing opportunity to embrace my academics and keep playing my sport thanks to a full scholarship."
