James Willis
Sports editor
jdwillis@willamette.edu
As the school year comes to an end, two Willamette University football players have learned they qualified for a national honor society. The Hampshire Honor Society, sponsored by the National Football Foundation (NFF), is for collegiate football players of all divisions who have maintained a 3.2 GPA throughout their athletic careers. This year, Willamette’s two inductees are Kyle Bonn and Jordan Jenkins.
Bonn was an offensive lineman for the Bearcats and is graduating with a degree in psychology. Jenkins was a wide receiver on the football team, although he also played on the basketball team as an undergraduate. He is graduating from Willamette’s Atkinson Graduate School of Management with his Master’s degree, as part of the 3-2 MBA program.
Bonn spoke about his experience following his qualification. “I hadn’t even heard about the Hampshire Honor Society before. It wasn’t a goal of mine to get in, because I had no idea that it existed.”
He also spoke on some of the ways he was able to find academic success. “It was a lot of early mornings and late nights. I had to forgo some social aspects of college. My time outside of class or practice was usually spent at work or studying for exams weeks in advance because I knew I wouldn't have time to cram.”
Bonn elaborated further on his academic habits: “Time management and hard work. You can always do a little more after you think you're at your limit.”
Even though he did not know about the society until he was selected for it, Bonn stepped back and recognized that this is an achievement that means something.
“It shows that I have put in hard work and persevered through adversity. It's proof that my effort brought the results I was hoping it would.”
Bonn said that he hopes that his achievement helps break the stigma of athletes, specifically football players, being less academically gifted than their peers.
“I am not the first or only person to receive this honor, many previous players have received this before me. I like to think that as more and more players are recognized for their academic talent that the stigma will weaken and eventually break.”
This year’s Hampshire Honor Society class has a little less than 1,500 members from football programs of all divisions all across the country. According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) website, there are just over 73,000 collegiate football players in the United States. Jenkins and Bonn are now the newest Willamette inductees to the selective Hampshire Honor Society.
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