Former south Dakota State women’s basketball student-athlete Megan Waytashek has added another honor as Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, recently named her one of five Laureates.
The Laureates were chosen for excelling in areas beyond their technical majors. Waytashek is the second SDSU student-athlete to be named a Tau Beta Pi Laureate. Former cross country All-American and electrical engineering graduate Lori Bocklund was honored in 1983.
Waytashek, who graduated with a mechanical engineering degree with minors in biomedical engineering and mathematics this past spring, will be presented a $2,500 cash award Oct. 29 at the 110th annual convention in Providence, R.I. To date, there are 98 Tau Bates who have been named Laureates since 1982.
Waytashek is attending the University of Minnesota this fall, pursuing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering with an emphasis in biomedical engineering.
This past spring, the Lino Lakes, Minn., native, who compiled a 3.97 GPA, was one of 87 student-athletes nationwide to be chosen for a $7,500 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Additionally, she named a second team Capital One Academic All-America® and was a three-time Academic All-Summit League selection.
In her senior year, the forward led the Jackrabbits in scoring (14.1 ppg) and steals (43). She became SDSU’s 33rd 1,000-point scorer, finishing with 1,390 points. En route to her third first team All-Summit League selection, Waytashek scored in double digits 24 of 31 games.
