Albany, NY — The Sage Colleges' women's soccer team had three student-athletes selected as recipients of the 2020 SCIRE Scholar Awards. The Scire Scholars Award, created in Spring 2014 by the former Dean of Sage College of Albany, Joanne Curran, acknowledges high- performing scholars in the academic pro-
grams at the college. Faculty members in each of the programs nominate a single scholar from their departments who demonstrates high levels of academic achievement and scholarship.
Honored for their academic successes were senior tri-captains Maegan Villa (Marlboro, NY/Washingtonville) and Giovanna Fichera (Cornwall, NY/Cornwall Central) and junior defender Bailey Pepper (West Chazy, NY/Chazy Central Rural).
Head Women's Soccer Coach Garrett Cobb noted, "This is a tremendous honor for these three student-athletes!" He continued, "I'm so proud to see all the hard work and dedication they put into their academics pay off. All three (and the rest of our team) are extremely bright and I'm happy to see that commitment is being recognized."
A senior on the 2019 Sage women's soccer team, Villa was a four-year letterwinner and closes her career ranked 10th with her 12 career assists. She was also named to the 2019 Empire 8 Women's Soccer Honorable Mention Team for her play this past season. Along the way, Villa played in 73 career games, which is second all-time at Sage and made 67 career starts. Her 67 starts is tied for third most at Sage. She also added 32 career points on 10 goals with 12 assists and had four game-winning goals. Villa, a Sage Scholar-Athlete honoree and an three-time Empire 8 Presidents' List honoree, was recognized for her work in psychology and was nominated by professor Nadine Nakamara for her paper in LGBTQ: Mental Health: International Perspectives and Experiences.
Fichera, a four-year letterwinner for the team and a two-time team captain made 68 appearances in a Sage uniform, which ranks 11th all-time. She also made 59 starts for the program and boasts 17 career points on seven goals with three assists. As a junior, she was honored as the Gator of the Year after helping the team earn a spot in the Empire 8 playoffs. She majored in health sciences with a path to occupational therapy and earned acclaim for her efforts in the classroom. She earned multiple Dean's List selections and was named to the Sage Scholar-Athlete Team as well in 2017-2018 and again in 2018-2019. She was selected to Sage's Athletic Honor Society twice and was also picked as an Empire 8 Presidents' List honoree several times. She was chosen for her work by Professors Karen Jacobs and Guy McCormack.
Pepper, who is an applied biology major at Sage was selected by Professors Jennifer A. Dudna and Samuel L. Sternberg for her work in A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution. A three-year letterwinner with the Gators, Pepper has anchored the Sage defense the past three years and has also excelled in the classroom. She is a Dean's List student and has earned multiple Empire 8 Presidents' List selections.
The honor of "Scire Scholar" is accompanied by the purchase of a book for the library's collection in the subject area of each of the programs of nominated student scholars. Electronic books contain a message in our online library catalog identifying the book as purchased to honor a particular Scire scholar. Traditional printed books contain a book label commemorating the Scire Scholar's name, department and degree in addition to the library catalog dedication. Scire Scholars receive a commemorative medal which can be worn at all future academic processions.
