HAVERFORD, Pa. – Haverford
College's Department of Athletics on Thursday evening honored
senior Aaron Buikema with the William W. Ambler Award, presented
annually to the senior athlete with the
highest cumulative grade-point average.
To win the award, a
student must have participated and started in at least one sport
throughout his/her college career, and demonstrated commitment,
sportsmanship and leadership.
The
road to Haverford College’s cross country and track teams
wasn’t without its personal hurdles for Buikema. After taking
up running in middle school as a way to keep busy, Buikema headed
into his high school years planning to continue to pursue the sport
on a more serious basis. Hurdles rose in his path, though, as
Buikema labored through a high school career so filled with injury
that at least one doctor advised him to try another
sport.
Choosing to continue to run on a college team seemed out of
the question given an on-again, off-again relationship with the
sport in high school, but Buikema found at Haverford "a welcoming
community comprised of runners who pushed themselves to their
limits both on and off the course," which turned that difficult
decision into an easy one.
"Haverford looked to be the kind of place where I didn’t
have to choose between sports and school," remembered Buikema. Once
enrolled at the College, "I was able to learn how much the athletic
experience compliments the academic one."
Buikema endeavored to follow two academic paths, both in the
sciences, at Haverford. He terms the mathematics and physics
programs "intellectually rigorous." Though the programs were
challenging, Buikema found the two inspiring and enjoyed the small
community at the College which "allowed me to interact with my
peers and numerous professors."
Advisor Peter John Love shares a high opinion of Buikema with
a pair of collaborators—Greg Engel at the University of
Chicago, and Ken Brown at Georgia Tech—who have worked with
the Haverford senior on a theoretical project for Buikema’s
senior thesis and voiced similar thoughts. "While he is a true
laboratory scientist and loves experimental science," states Love,
"Aaron’s abilities are equally strong in theoretical work. He
has been working on one of the most long-standing and difficult
problems in my research program and his work has pointed us toward
a solution. It has been a real pleasure working with
Aaron."
When
his academic road became frustrating, Buikema found that "pounding
out a few miles" was as helpful intellectually as well as it was
athletically, something his coach, Tom Donnelly,
appreciated.
"Aaron
is incredibly dedicated, hardworking and passionate about running,"
said Donnelly. "Even though a series of injuries have sidetracked
him, Aaron has never backed off from his goal of being the best
athlete he can be, and a person who contributes to the overall
success of the team."
The
programs Buikema has been a part of have captured three Centennial
Conference cross country titles, two indoor track & field
conference crowns and two outdoor league titles. Buikema has run
alongside 10 cross country All-Americans and has been part of
indoor and outdoor track & field teams that produced 12
individual all-American honorees. In addition, Buikema trained with
a pair of relay quartets that earned all-American honors for the
distance medley relay.
Buikema is active off the race course and track as he has been
a physics tutor since his sophomore year and currently shares the
leadership position of Street Outreach, a Haverford club that makes
and delivers sandwiches to the homeless of
Philadelphia.
Future
plans include graduate school to obtain a doctorate in physics,
with a focus on experimental atomic, molecular, and optical
physics.
Ambler epitomized the scholar-athlete. He graduated from
Haverford in 1949 with honors in mathematics and was a starting
tackle on the last undefeated football team in 1942. Despite his
lack of bulk, a teammate once said of him, "When Bill hit you, you
stayed hit." Originally in the Class of 1945, Bill left Haverford
to perform alternative service as a conscientious objector in World
War II.
After graduation, Ambler taught math at Oakwood School
and was an admissions officer at the University of Pennsylvania
when Director of Admission Archibald MacIntosh ’21 asked him
to return to Haverford as his assistant in 1956. Ambler was named
Associate Director of Admission in 1960, then Director upon
"Mac’s" retirement in 1965. He himself retired in 1987, was
honored by Haverford with an Honorary Degree in 1991, and died in
1995 soon after his 50th class reunion. No one who knew him will
ever forget Bill’s piercing blue eyes, his spiritual depth,
his interest in everyone he interviewed, and his love of
Haverford.
In addition to Buikema, Thursday's banquet honored 15 of
Haverford's most distinguished scholar-athlete for their own
accomplishments and as representatives of the many student-athletes
who have excelled during their time at Haverford. Listed below are
those athletes along with their sport, head coach, major(s),
advisor, and faculty liaison.
- Kimberly Carlomagno (track & field; Fran
Rizzo), biology/psychology Jonathan Wilson, Alex
Kitroeff
- Matthew Cebul (tennis; Sean Sloane), Political
Science/Philosophy, Barak
Mendelsohn, Robert Germany
- Alessandra Chen (soccer; Jamie Gluck) Biology, Rachel Hoang,
Ken Koltun-Fromm
- David Colletta (cross country, track & field; Tom
Donnelly), Mathematics/Physics, Josh Sabloff, Indradeep Ghosh
- Kevin Goff (baseball; Dave Beccaria), Chemistry/Psychology,
Casey Londergan and Jenni Punt, John Dougherty
- Sara Hess (cross country, track & field; Fran Rizzo),
chemistry, Casey Londergan, Alex Kitroeff
- Sydney Hyder (field hockey; Jackie Cox), biology/psychology,
Rob Fairman, Wendy Sternberg
- Peter Kissin (cross country, Track & Field; Tom Donnelly),
physics, Peter Love, Indradeep Ghosh
- Alec Koffer (track
& field; Tom Donnelly), economics, Saleha Jilani, Indradeep Ghosh
- Emma Kornetsky (Track & Field; Fran Rizzo),
psychology/cities and neuroscience, Rebecca Compton, Alex Kitroeff
- Matthew Liscovitz (baseball; Dave Beccaria),
classical languages, Bret Mulligan and Deborah
Roberts, John Dougherty
- Linus Marco (fencing; Chris Spencer), economics
and political science, Richard Ball and Zachary
Oberfield, Maud McInerney
- Sheera Rosenbaum (cross country, track & field; Fran Rizzo),
biology, Karl Johnson, Alex Kitroeff
- Matthew Smith (cricket; Kamran Kahn ), chemistry
and mathematics, Alex Norquist and Joshua Schrier
- Jacob Weisenthal (tennis; Sean Sloane), political
science and Spanish, Anita Isaacs and Roberto Castillo
Sandoval, Robert Germany
