University of Oklahoma Athletics
Laster Earns CoSIDA Scholarship
June 15, 2015 | Athletics
NORMAN - Akilah Laster, a graduate assistant in the University of Oklahoma's Athletics Communications office, was named the recipient of the Langston Rogers Postgraduate Scholarship today during ceremonies at the annual College Sports Information Directors of America Convention in Orlando, Fla.
Laster, who earned her bachelor's degree in communications from the University of Miami in May of 2007, is pursuing a master's degree at the University of Oklahoma while serving as an Athletics Diversity Council Graduate Assistant. She focuses much of her attention on the Sooner track and field programs and has assisted with other Sooner sports as well. She is completing her first year with OU and becomes OU's first recipient of a CoSIDA scholarhsip.
She is an active member of the Intercollegiate Athleteics Administration Student Association and was elected to serve as co-director of communications for IAASA. Additionally, she has been elected as a representative to OU's Graduate Student Senate.
Laster served as a volunteer at the Big 12 Conference men's basketball tournament in March, and for the 2015 Cotton Bowl. She previously served as a communications intern for the Orange Bowl games in 2013 and 2014. She spent three years as a freelance writer for the Miami Herald and Miami Times/SFHSSports.com from 2011 to 2014. She spent nearly six years as a language arts teacher in the Miami Dade County Public Schools following her graduation from the University of Miami.
CoSIDA awarded a combined $35,000 in scholarships and grants to the recipients of their 2015-16 awards. The CoSIDA Scholarship Committee members chose a pair of $7,500 postgraduate scholarship recipients, two more $3,000 undergraduate scholarship winners, two $1,000 scholarship winners among the children of CoSIDA members, and selected one school to receive a $12,000 graduate internship grant.
The Langston Rogers Postgraduate Scholarship is named in honor of former Mississippi Sports Information Director and CoSIDA Hall of Famer Langston Rogers, who served as the SID at Ole Miss from 1981 until his retirement in 2010. The scholarship is presented annually to a rising minority or female student.
