STANFORD, Calif. - Three Stanford women's volleyball players, current senior Meghan McClure and alumnae Tami Alade and Jordan Burgess, were awarded NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships for their academic and athletic achievements.
NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winners receive a one-time grant of $10,000. In addition to maintaining at least a 3.2 grade-point average, they must perform with distinction in their sport and be nominated by their institution's faculty athletics representative. Stanford's overall total of NCAA postgraduate scholarship recipients is now 179.
The lone senior on the current Cardinal squad, McClure is a two-time NCAA champion and three-time Pac-12 champion. A 2018 AVCA All-America honorable mention honoree, the outside hitter was named a CoSIDA First Team Academic All-American in 2019. She was also the 2019 NCAA Elite 90 Award winner, presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA at the Final Four. A 2021 Senior CLASS Award top-30 candidate, McClure carries a 4.032 GPA in science, technology and society.
Following graduation this spring, McClure will be in the Teach for America Memphis Corps working as a public school special education teacher. There, she intends to pursue a master's in education from Johns Hopkins and a career in the field of education. The scholarship helps her continue to explore her passion for education, whether that takes the form of teaching, administration, policy, advocacy or educational technology. She hopes to make meaningful change for underserved children in America.
Alade, who played for Stanford from 2015-18, was a two-time AVCA All-American and two-time NCAA champion (2016, 2018). A CoSIDA Academic All-American as a senior, Alade finished her career with the Cardinal as the program's all-time leader in blocks per set (1.55) and third in school history with a .399 attack percentage. The 2018 Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, she was also a finalist for the Senior CLASS Award and a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic selection.
Alade graduated with a degree in human biology with a 3.60 GPA in 2019. She has been working as a health associate alongside a pediatrician as a school for early education in East Palo Alto. She works to support families in accessing the health systems, promoting key health behaviors and embed a culture of health education within school programming. She plans to use her scholarship for medical school tuition and eventually hopes to pursue a career in the field of pediatrics working in underserved communities to provide better care and access for families living in those populations.
Burgess, who earned her undergraduate degree in human biology with a 3.65 cumulative GPA in 2016, was a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-America Second Team selection and a three-time Pac-12 All-Academic pick. The 2015 Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Burgess was also a Senior CLASS Award First Team All-America honoree. She was a two-time All-American, three-time all-conference selection, and helped lead the Cardinal to two Pac-12 titles and a trip to the NCAA Final Four in 2014 after a six-year drought. A four-year starter, the Fort Myers, Florida native is one of just 10 Cardinal players to have registered 1,000 career kills and digs. She finished her time with the program sixth overall in career digs (1,320) and ninth in career digs per set (2.84).
After graduation, Burgess spent a season playing professionally overseas in Suhl, Germany. She returned home to take the MCAT and moved back to California in the fall of 2018 to work as a clinical research coordinator in the Stanford Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. Now, a first year medical student at Stanford, Burgess plans to use the scholarship to help fund her education. She hopes to become a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who would like to work at the intersection of reconstructive surgery and global health.