Jessica Ras, a graduating health and physical education major from Kingston, Pa., is East Stroudsburg University\u2019s student speaker for the winter commencement ceremony on Saturday, December 14, at 10 a.m. in Koehler Fieldhouse. Ras was selected from a pool of student speaker candidates.<\/p>\n
Criteria for student speaker candidates includes: a minimum 3.0 grade point average entering the fall semester; a demonstrated record of service to the university community and a record of leadership and cooperation; demonstrated evidence of meaningful extra\/co-curricular involvement; and must be in good academic standing.<\/p>\n
Ras currently has a 3.955 cumulative grade point average. Throughout her years at East Stroudsburg University, she has been a committed and involved member in many clubs and organizations, including the International Buddy Program, Captains Council and the Health and Physical Education Club. With these clubs and organizations, she also has served on several university-wide committees, such as the homecoming committee, food committee, strategic planning and implementation committee, and the tutoring task force.<\/p>\n
A member of the East Stroudsburg University softball team for four years, Ras served as captain for the 2012-2013 seasons. She has been an active member of the ESU Student Senate for seven semesters, served as the recruitment chair for the \u201cWarrior Elite\u201d Student Ambassador Program for six semesters and has been president and vice president\/president elect for the Delta Alpha Pi Honor Society.<\/p>\n
In addition, Ras has represented ESU by serving as a presenter at the PSAHPERD (Pennsylvania State Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance) State Convention and the PASSHE (Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education) Annual Diversity Summit.<\/p>\n
Ras\u2019 volunteer work includes being a guest speaker for the American Red Cross and the Pennsylvania State Little League tournament.\u00a0 She volunteered at the university\u2019s women in sports day clinics, ESU\u2019s softball team clinics, the Stroudsburg Head Start Christmas parties and the Pocono Mountain ironman triathlon. She has been a volunteer assistant coach for the softball team at Meyers High School in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and through personal initiative, raised money for the Medical Oncology Associates \u201cMOA Prescription Fund\u201d via her \u201cPillows for Patients\u201d fundraiser.
\nRas has received many honors and awards, including having been named Homecoming Queen for the 2012-2013 academic year.\u00a0She also received the East Stroudsburg University \u201cWinning Warrior\u201d Award, the highest award given through the ESU athletics department.\u00a0 Ras is a member of Who\u2019s Who Among American College Students and is also an East Stroudsburg University APSCUF (Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculty) Honor Student.<\/p>\n
Ras has been honored as a NASPE (National Association for Sport and Physical Education) Health and Physical Education \u201cMajor of the Year\u201d and also a PSAHPERD Outstanding Future Professional.\u00a0 Through athletics, she has received the ESU softball coaches\u2019 award, PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference) Scholar Athlete Award, and the Division II Athletic Directors Association Academic Achievement Award.\u00a0 Along with being on the Dean\u2019s List, she has been named to the Athletic Director\u2019s Honor Roll.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough my academic, athletic, and co-curricular involvement, ESU has provided me with the experience I need to become an accomplished member of the professional community,\u201d Ras said. \u201cEast Stroudsburg University has afforded me the opportunity to form relationships that I will always value.\u00a0 Along with this, ESU has inspired me to set high goals and strive toward excellence. I will forever treasure my time as a Warrior.\u201d<\/p>\n
After graduation, Ras plans to teach in the field of Health and Physical Education and coach a high school softball team. In addition, she would like to pursue a master\u2019s degree and earn her Ph.D.\u00a0 Ultimately, she would like to one day write a book that gives hope to children and young adults who are battling leukemia and other cancers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jessica Ras is Named ESU’s Student Speaker for the Winter Commencement Ceremony<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[22,42,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-facebook","category-news-release","category-slider"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8018"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8023,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8018\/revisions\/8023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}