COLCHESTER, Vt. - Saint Michael's College men's cross country May graduate Swapnil Jhajharia (Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, India/Woodstock School) was announced as one of three finalists for the Northeast-10 Conference Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year on Tuesday. Jhajharia, Bentley University lacrosse's Cam Bartolomeo, and Franklin Pierce University cross country and track & field's Ryan Walker are all under consideration.
 
Each NE10 institution is eligible to put forth a nominee before the pool is whittled down to three finalists. Nominees must have just completed their final year of athletic eligibility, graduated with an undergraduate degree in May, be enrolled in a full-time course load, and have a minimum final cumulative grade-point average of 3.30. The winner is set to be announced at the NE10 Banquet at the Sheraton Needham in Needham, Mass., on Tuesday evening, June 4. The award, which was established in 2000, is voted upon annually by a committee of faculty members and athletic administrators at NE10 schools.
 
On May 12, Jhajharia was honored at the 117th Saint Michael's Commencement with the Father Prevel Memorial Award, one of two major senior accolades presented at graduation, and earned further recognition as one of 10 seniors with a perfect 4.0 GPA. Earlier that week, Jhajharia claimed the inaugural Michael D. Samara Award for his work as a member of the Residence Life staff and the Roger F. Keleher '15 Award as one of three top scholar-athletes in the graduating class.
 
This past fall, Jhajharia capped his third year as a Purple Knight cross country runner by earning the NE10 Elite 24 Award as the student-athlete with the highest GPA competing in the NE10 Championship and an NE10 Academic All-Conference laurel, adding to a bountiful list of career honors. He landed a pair of Division 2 Athletics Directors Association (D2 ADA) Academic Achievement Awards and four NE10 Academic Honor Roll nods, and has been inducted into six honor societies: Chi Alpha Sigma (college athlete), Delta Epsilon Sigma (Catholic colleges), Mu Sigma Rho (statistics), Phi Beta Kappa (liberal arts and sciences), Pi Mu Epsilon (mathematics) and Psi Chi (psychology).
 
Jhajharia earned degrees in psychology and statistics while also double minoring in anthropology and mathematics, and received a Certificate of Achievement in calculus. A well-known figure around campus, he was a Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts (MOVE) core team member, an Office of Admission tour guide and Founders Society member, an SMC Buddies program leader, an Adventure Sports Center student leader, and an International Student Ambassador. Off campus, he made a difference working with the Vermont Afghan Alliance and was also a Freeman Foundation scholarship recipient last summer, living and working in Vietnam. Jhajharia will attend graduate school next year in Hawaii.