By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications
SALEM, Ore. -- Willamette University men's soccer player Abdul Ali (Sr., D, West Linn, OR/West Linn HS) has received an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Ali will be graduating from Willamette this month with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. The award provides $10,000 toward graduate school tuition. Ali is the 13th Willamette student-athlete to be selected for an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship since 2005.
The NCAA awards up to 126 postgraduate scholarships each year. The scholarships are awarded to student-athletes who excel academically and athletically and who are at least in their final year of intercollegiate competition. The one-time, non-renewable scholarships are awarded during each sport season (fall, winter, spring). Each sports season there are 21 scholarships available for men and 21 scholarships available for women from all NCAA divisions to use toward an accredited graduate program.
"I am extremely honored to be selected for this scholarship," Ali said. "I was so excited when I got the email stating I received it. The application was tedious and I had to draft over five versions of my essay before submitting. After four years of playing in the NCAA, spending hours upon hours on the field, in the gym, and most importantly in the library, I have been fortunate enough to see tangible dividends for my future plans. To sum it up, I am really happy, humbled, and honored."
Ali will remain at Willamette to use his NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. He will be attending Willamette's Atkinson Graduate School of Management next year as part of the 3+2 BA/MBA program. He will apply the scholarship to expenses for the 2023-34 academic year as he completes his Master of Business Administration degree.
"I am currently pursuing my MBA with an emphasis in marketing. Understanding your customers and being able to deliver a superior product offering to them through that understanding is what makes great organizations so memorable. This is why I am passionate about marketing," Ali noted.
Along the way, Ali has received athletic and academic help and motivation from his family, soccer teammates, coaches, and professors. For Ali, it has been a cooperative approach that has made attending Willamette an excellent decision.
"My success is not attributable to myself. It has been a collective force of experiences, advice, and mentorship from the many amazing people around me," Ali commented. "My parents showed me what it meant to wake up every day and work hard. They both immigrated here to attend university and attain degrees, and taught me to not take for granted the opportunities and resources I have available to me.
"Specifically at Willamette, I would say the strong connections I was able to make with my team (coaches included), classmates, and professors attributed to my success," Ali continued. "They helped me understand the power of my voice and the value that each individual has to offer."
Ali improved throughout his career as a Willamette soccer player and was a defensive leader this past season, when the Bearcats won the Northwest Conference Championship and reached the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament. He received Academic All-District honors from the College Sports Communicators (CSC, formerly CoSIDA). Now he has added an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship to his list of academic accomplishments.
"I really want to thank Professor Brandi Row Lazzarini for her support throughout the whole application process," Ali said. "As a Faculty Athletics Representative, she was instrumental in kick starting the process, but she also made sure that I was conveying my future aspirations fully within my application. We met many times over Winter Break to work on the application together. Thank you, Brandi!"
Another Willamette professor has impacted Ali's efforts as he works his way through the 3+2 BA/MBA program.
"I also would like to thank Professor Debra J. Ringold for her mentorship within the marketing discipline and management practice," Ali commented. " I enrolled in a course with Dr. Ringold during the fall of my sophomore year in 2020, when the pandemic was in full swing. Despite this she delivered the best learning experience I had in my educational career up to that point. Later, during the spring of my junior year in 2022, I took Dr. Ringold's Marketing Principles course and it really opened my eyes to the importance of ethical and effective marketing practices, and how they drive value within organizations. Dr. Ringold has been an absolute gem of a professor and has taught me so many lessons that surpass the limits of a classroom. She was also incredibly instrumental in the application process and gave me the tough love I needed to really refine my essay and deliver something worthy of receiving the scholarship. We also met numerous times over Winter Break to revise, edit, and workshop what a successful essay would look like."
Ali also received great support and learned a lot from his soccer coaches and teammates.
"I can't forget about Sam Adelman and Jared Rust, two of my head coaches during my time playing on the men's soccer team," he said. "Both are very different in their styles, but they both helped me mature as a man and provided me continuous feedback and advice whenever I needed it.
"My teammates who were older paved the way for us and taught us what it means to be a strong contributor to the campus space and what it means to be a Bearcat soccer player. We hold ourselves to an incredibly high standard and I attribute my academic and athletic success to that. And those who were younger allowed me to lead them, put their trust in me, and gave me honest critical feedback."
"Abdul deserves this award after the countless hours he's dedicated to being the best version of himself on and off the pitch," Willamette Head Men's Soccer Coach Sam Adelman said. "His resume speaks for itself in all the service he provides to our campus community and partners. This scholarship being utilized towards the AGSM here at Willamette will allow him to continue that service. I believe the NCAA couldn't have made a better choice in their decision."
