Four York Students Named as Honorable Mention CUNY Scholar-Athletes; Soccer Coach Kouakou Receives “Friend of CUNY” Award
FLUSHING N.Y—The City University of New York held its 27th Annual Michael Steuerman Scholar-Athlete Awards Dinner on Thursday night and four York College student-athletes were named as Honorable Mention Scholar-Athletes.
Anna Ko (women's tennis),
Kyla Pinnock (women's soccer),
Joviette Frederick (softball) and
Qudus Kassim (men's soccer) were all honored. In addition, York women's soccer head coach
Kafui Kouakou was honored with the “Friends of CUNY” award for his contributions to education and athletics within the CUNY system.
With a 3.86 GPA as an Occupational Therapy major and the school record for career and single-season wins, Ko has proven to be a force both on and off the tennis court. In three seasons, Ko has a 24-11 record (.686) and in 2012, she was nearly perfect, going 10-1 in singles play. A five-time member of the Dean's List, she has also volunteered her time at several area hospitals
Pinnock holds a 3.47 GPA while studying in the challenging field of Biotechnology. She does research with nanomaterials, volunteers at a local hospital and tutors fellow students. She is also one of the Cardinals top defenders on the women's soccer team.
An accounting major and three-year goalie for the York men's soccer team, Kassim holds a 3.57 GPA and has been on the Dean's List five times. He prepares taxes for free as part of the Volunteer Income Tax Association program and is a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success
A three-sport athlete at times during her four-years at York, Frederick has competed in cross country, track and field and softball. In softball, she has started all four years and has a career batting average near .300. This season, she led the team in home runs and RBIs. She holds a 3.6 GPA in Health Education and has made the Dean's List six times.
The Friends of CUNY Award is given to someone within the CUNY community that made great contributions both on and off the field of play. In addition to his duties as head coach of the York women's soccer team and assistant coach on the men's team, Kouakou serves as the Chairperson of the University Student Senate on the CUNY Board of Trustees.
Kouakou is no stranger to being honored during his time at York as both a student and staff member. In addition to being named the Chairperson of the University Student Senate last year, Kouakou has led the men's soccer team to two CUNY Athletic Conference titles, with one coming as a player and another as a coach. In 2008, he was the winner of the Michael Steuerman award. Earlier that school year, he was named CUNYAC Men's Soccer Most Valuable Player as the Cardinals' goalkeeper.
Alyssa Lubrino, a swimmer from Baruch College, and Paul Dedewo of the City College of New York Track and Field team were named the 2012-13 CUNY Scholar-Athletes of the Year.
In order to be eligible for consideration as CUNYAC Scholar-Athlete, a student must be a senior and hold a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.2. The Athletic Directors of each CUNY School voted for a male and female scholar-athlete of the year from a pool of nominees submitted by each member school. The remaining nominees (a max of four from each school) were named as honorable mentions.
