Feb. 27, 2006

As part of its 10th Anniversary celebration the Big 12 Conference is spotlighting past recipients of the Dr. Prentice Gautt Postgraduate Scholarship Program. To be eligible for consideration a student-athlete must have possessed a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale, participated in at least two years of intercollegiate athletics at the nominating institution, and plan to enroll in graduate school within 15 months of graduation.

This week the Big 12 salutes former Missouri student-athletes and Dr. Prentice Gautt Postgraduate Scholarship winners Radu Miclaus and Nicki Weber Moore.

Miclaus, a Tigers' swimming and diving team student-athlete from 1999-2003, has been involved in both athletics and business since completing his eligibility. He spent a year as an assistant coach at Missouri before moving on to work for the Missouri Student Credit Union and the Dutch-owned publishing company Reed Elsevier. Miclaus completed his Masters in Business Administration at the University of Iowa in 2005.

"The Prentice Gautt Postgraduate Scholarship allowed me to begin graduate work at Missouri while assisting the swimming and diving program," he said. "The invaluable financial help let me get into the private business sector as well as complete my Masters' work."

A former member of the Tigers' track and field teams, Moore's academic pursuits earned her a B.S. Education, M.A. Counseling Psychology, and Ph.D. Counseling Psychology from Missouri. Moore spent time at UC-Davis in the Campus Counseling Center and athletics department before heading to UNLV to teach educational psychology and enter private practice. For the past two years she has worked with student-athletes at the University of Oklahoma as the Director of Psychological Resources, in the Dr. Prentice Gautt Student-Athletes Center. She recently qualified to compete in the 2006 Boston Marathon.

"My own experience as a student-athlete," she said, "which was significantly extended in part due to injury and in part afforded by the support of the Prentice Gautt Postgraduate Scholarship, has been invaluable to me in this current role at OU. Having an intimate understanding of the tugs and strains of life as a student-athlete uniquely equips me to connect quickly with student-athletes and to deliver the kind of psychological support that is palatable, relevant, ethical, and scientifically-based."

Since 1997 the Dr. Prentice Gautt Scholarship program has funded nearly $700,000 to Big 12 student-athletes for their postgraduate studies.