ORLANDO, Fla. – Illinois State women's basketball student-athlete Juliunn Redmond was one of 68 recipients nationwide of the 2020-21 Academic Momentum Award, announced by the Scholar Baller® program in conjunction with the Institute for Sport & Social Justice (ISSJ) on Tuesday. Top nominees were categorized into three teams based on each student-athletes academic improvement and the impact each student-athlete has had on their classmates, teammates, academic advisors and professors.
Redmond, who will be using her extra year of eligibility and returning for the 2021-22 season, is a Human Developmental Science major and was one of 27 student-athletes named to the First Team. She was the only Missouri Valley Conference student-athlete to receive the recognition and one of three women's basketball student-athletes to be honored on First Team (joining Diamond Battles of UCF and Valeria Tapia of UTRGV). Redmond will receive a certificate and a limited edition ThinkWoman® trophy with the award.
Established in 1995, the Scholar Baller® movement evolved in response to concerns that the student-athletes' athletics role increasingly superseded the student role. In order to address this issue, the founding members of Scholar Baller® developed a groundbreaking program to bridge the gap between education and sport utilizing student-athletes' passion for entertainment and athletics. As a result, the Scholar Baller® program continues to produce unprecedented outcomes in student retention, academic achievement and career development.
The ISSJ is a national non-profit organization, on the University of Central Florida campus, that utilizes the passion and love for sport to create a safe environment to explore and discuss social justice issues. The mission of the ISSJ is to "use the power of sport to effect positive social change. We educate and empower individuals and organizations by inspiring values-based thinking leading to actions that promote social responsibility and equality."
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