The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) has announced three finalists for the 2024 ITA Sally Ride STEM Award.

The award was endowed by Tam O’Shaughnessy, Sally Ride’s life partner and co-founder and executive director of Sally Ride Science, to honor an outstanding female collegiate tennis player who plans to pursue graduate studies in a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) field.

Ride, America’s first woman in space, played tennis at Stanford University, where she e her doctorate in physics.

The recipient of the award receives an $8,000 grant to pursue her dreams. This year’s finalists (from left to right in photo) are:

Hannah Kassaie of Case Western Reserve University
Allison Riley of Allegheny College
Nicole Nowak of Sewanee: The University of the South

“The finalists for the 2024 ITA Sally Ride STEM Award are exceptional scholar-athletes,” O’Shaughnessy said. “Just like Sally, each young woman built her strength of mind, body and spirit through sports and science. And just like Sally, each will inspire the next generation of girls—through her example—to strive and persevere, to dream big!”

ITA Chief Executive Officer Dr. Timothy Russell said, “The ITA has one of the most robust awards programs in all of college athletics, and the ITA Sally Ride STEM Award honors one of the best of the best in our sport.”

The ITA Sally Ride STEM Award is now in its third year. Previous recipients were McKenzie Ferrari from UMass Dartmouth (2023) and Anna Tifrea from the California Institute of Technology (2022).

Go to the ITA website to learn more about the finalists and about the award.