UMF's Fern Calkins is the 2021 NAC Woman of the Year

UMF's Fern Calkins is the 2021 NAC Woman of the Year

UMF's Fern Calkins is the 2021 NAC Woman of the Year

 

The North Atlantic Conference (NAC) Woman of the Year is Fern Calkins of the University of Maine at Farmington (UMF). Calkins was selected from five nominated student athletes for the prestigious honor which encompasses all facets of the NCAA Division III student athlete experience. She is also the NAC nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year award.

Fern Calkins (Oakland, Maine) is a recent graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington. Both the 2021 UMF Senior Scholar Athlete and the 2021 NAC Women's Soccer Senior Scholar Athlete, Calkins achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA and graduated with honors. Her undergraduate major was Biology with a Pre-Med emphasis, and she also earned a minor in Coaching.

Calkins was a member of UMF's Honors Program and made the President's List every semester. In addition to multiple placements on the NAC All-Academic Team, she received the Tufts University School of Medicine Maine Track Scholarship, Irene and Daisy MacGregor Memorial Scholarship, and the MaineGeneral Scholarship.

The Maine native was active in a variety of service projects, including volunteering at the UMF Health Center Flu Clinic, preparing and delivering Thanksgiving baskets for the Oakland and Farmington communities, and participating in the "Super Beaver Readers" program at Mallett Elementary School. She also organized and managed a blood drive in 2020, and a "Be the Match Bone Marrow Drive" this year.

Calkins has been a volunteer with the ShineOnCass Foundation since 2014. In honor of Cassidy Charette, this program provides programming and recruits individuals to give back to their communities. She also served as a role model for young soccer players, including establishing the soccer mentorship program "ShineOnSaturday" in her hometown. Fern was also a volunteer assistant coach for Central Maine United U-15 girls Premiere Soccer.

Calkins served as an instructor's aide for chemistry and also provided individual tutoring in a variety of subjects at UMF. She was an Athletic Training assistant and served as a Health Advocate designing health outreach activities for students on campus. In this role she also facilitated public presentations of the StepUp Bystander Intervention Training program aimed at eliminating sexual assault. She also worked as a Personal Care Assistant, during the day and overnight, for a student with advanced physical disability from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

In addition to an internship at MaineGeneral Health in 2018-19, she designed and carried out a research project on the capabilities of bacteriophage to infect antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and generated azithromycin-resistant M. smegmatis bacteria using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion susceptibility protocol and infected both azithromycin-resistant and original M. smegmatis bacteria with phage Michley to compare results. She also facilitated hands-on, after-school science programming for 4-H as a STEM Ambassador at Wilton Elementary School in 2018.

Calkins is a four-year team member and center midfielder for the Beavers women's soccer team. She started 34 games for UMF, and notched seven career goals and three assists. She was a member of the 2018 NAC Champion team, and also made it to the championship match in 2019 where she was named to the All-Tournament Team.

Calkins will be honored on her campus during the upcoming academic year. She is the second Beaver to earn NAC Woman of the Year honors since the conference began the award in 2011-12. Laura Pulito was a co-honoree with Evelyn Miller of Colby-Sawyer College in 2017-18.

The NAC Woman of the Year award is modeled after the NCAA Woman of the Year program which honors graduating student athletes who distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletic excellence, service, and leadership. The 2020-21 nominees were announced on June 23 and included Jessica D'Auria of Maine Maritime Academy, Lillian Friars of Thomas College, Makalya Hulett of SUNY Polytechnic Instititute, and Kendra Silvers of UMaine-Presque Isle.

Member schools nominate student athletes from their own institution, then NAC Athletic Directors and Senior Woman Administrators vote to select the Woman of the Year. Scoring for the academic achievement section is based on the undergraduate cumulative grade-point average of the nominee. Scoring for athletic excellence is based on the nominee's honors and accomplishments including awards and championships, and scoring for service and leadership is based on their involvement in campus and community activities and organizations over the course of their collegiate career. Administrators also consider a short personal statement written by each nominee.

The NAC also selects a Man of the Year using the same model. Nominees were announced June 24, and the winner will be announced tomorrow, July 1. These are the two preeminent awards presented annually by the conference.

Previous nominees and winners are archived HERE.

Representatives from the NCAA membership comprise the NCAA Woman of the Year Selection Committee. The selection committee will choose the Top-30 national honorees, including 10 from each division, and then narrow the list to the top-three in each division using the guidelines outlined here. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will use the same criteria to select the winner from the final nine. The top-30 are due to be announced in September, and the 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named in November, 2021.