The NCAA recently released the list of 58 senior fall athletes from all divisions who have been awarded $7,500 postgraduate scholarships. Lake Forest College men's soccer player Mahir Mameledzija was among the honorees.
Mameledzija was a four-year letter winner on the Forester men's soccer team and is majoring in chemistry and Spanish. The four-time First Team All-Midwest Conference forward was voted the MWC Offensive Player of the Year three times and MWC Player of the Year twice. Lake Forest went 54-20-4 overall and he was voted the Foresters' Most Valuable Player three times and captained the squad to a pair of conference championships during his career. The team also advanced to the NCAA Division III Tournament his senior season. Mameledzija finished his career with a school and conference record 72 goals and 165 points. He also set team and MWC single-season records while leading the nation with 27 goals and 59 points in 2012.
With a 3.86 cumulative grade point average, Mameledzija has also earned several academic awards. He was named Capital One First Team Academic All-American® as a junior and senior and was selected as the Capital One Academic All-American® of the Year last fall. He made the Dean's List each of his first three years and earned the College's Freshman and Sophomore Scholar/Athlete Awards. He was an Academic All-MWC honoree each year he was eligible for the honor and received Scholar All-America accolades twice from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.
In addition to his own achievements on the field and in the classroom, Mameledzija has also contributed to the success of others. He served as a Math and Science Resource Center tutor, a Peer Mentor for the College's freshmen First-Year Studies courses, a teaching assistant in the biology department, and an instrument support specialist in the chemistry department. In addition, he has been involved with the Forester Athletic Department's annual sponsorship of National Girls and Women in Sports Day and several Playing for a Cure (benefitting the American Cancer Society) initiatives. In the local community, Mameledzija served as a volunteer at Rush North Shore Skokie Hospital and as amentor and coach to many of the area's youth as a soccer camp coach and counselor.
Having wanted to be a physician since he was a child, Mameledzija plans to use the funds from the NCAA toward the cost of medical school.
Mameledzija is just the fourth Forester student-athlete in the last 20 years to earn a postgraduate scholarship from the NCAA, joining swimmers Tobi Limke (1997) and Becky Shaak (2013) and basketball player Alison Grubbs (2001).
2013-14 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Awardees
