WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue track & field senior Kaia Harris has been named a recipient of the 2021 Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Award, the National Association of Academic and Student-Athlete Development Professionals (N4A) announced.
The award honors student-athletes who have overcome great personal, academic and/or emotional odds to achieve academic success while participating in intercollegiate athletics.
A West Lafayette native, Harris was involved in a near-fatal car accident in November, 2019, that left her unable to walk for two months. Suffering extensive injuries and several surgeries, Harris has spent the past year and a half recovering. And although she is still not fully recovered, her drive, desire for normalcy and love for the competition fueled her return to the Purdue uniform.
Within months of her return to competition, Harris threw the No. 2 discus mark in program history to qualify for the NCAA postseason.
"I am incredibly honored to receive this award," Harris said. "The last one and a half years have been a struggle, but it's taught me to control the things that I can control and roll with the punches on the rest. I couldn't have done it without an amazing support system, and there are countless people to thank for helping me get to where I am today."
Harris, a thrower for the Boilermakers, double majors in marketing and kinesiology, with a minor in Spanish. She is a senior academically and a freshman athletically after transferring to Purdue in 2018 from the Air Force Academy.
"Anybody who knows Kaia knows that she's a person of optimism," Purdue coach Norbert Elliott said. "I've never seen Kaia without a smile on her face, never. Her sheer personality lends to her almost near-miraculous comeback from her accident. I was in the hospital so I saw with my very own eyes, several days later, her condition. To think that a year and a half later, she not only would progress as much as she did towards recovery, but throwing here at the NCAA Regional Championships, is nothing short of miraculous. It speaks to her optimism, I've never seen her with a frown on her face and she's always bright, bubbly and encouraging her teammates. She's just a great person. I think it's a well-deserved award and it couldn't have gone to a better person than Kaia."
Just a few short months into her second year at Purdue, Harris was in a car accident on a highway outside of West Lafayette. She spent the next two weeks in the hospital after suffering extensive injuries to her pelvis and internal organs, and was unable to walk for a full two months. Even then, it took additional surgery and extensive physical therapy before that was possible.
Despite the accident, Harris finished her classes in the fall of 2019 and took a full course load the following semester.
Although she is still not fully recovered, Harris has worked extensively with Purdue's athletic trainers and strength & conditioning staff to get back into competition shape. She competed in three indoor meets this season in the weight throw, then doubled her competition outdoors, throwing both the discus and hammer, including at the Big Ten Championships.
Harris had a pair of personal-best marks at the Big Ten North Florida Invite on April 2-3, highlighted by a discus throw of 54.11 meters, which is the second-best mark in the Purdue record books, which resulted in her first collegiate victory. To top off the meet, she added a personal-best of 52.89 meters in the hammer throw.
Harris' seventh outdoor meet of 2021 comes this Saturday, May 29, when she makes her NCAA debut at the NCAA East Prelims in Jacksonville, Florida.
Along with Harris, the 2021 Wilma Rudolph recipients are: Gia Hodges, University of Tennessee; Hunter Pinke, University of North Dakota; Bryand Rincher, Florida State University; Charles (Tre) Tipton, University of Pittsburgh; and Gwendolyn Zeckowski, University of Maryland. These six student-athletes will be honored in conjunction with the 2021 N4A Virtual Convention on June 23, which is Wilma Rudolph's birthday.
Each of the six honorees have persevered and made significant personal strides toward success.
About Wilma Rudolph: Despite being told as a child she would never walk again, Wilma Rudolph relentlessly pursued her dreams becoming an international track and field star. At the height of her career, "the fastest woman in the world" used her platform to shed light on social issues. Rudolph competed in the 1956 Olympic Games and won a bronze medal in 4x100 relay. Four years later, she headed to the 1960 Summer Olympics, determined to earn gold. Her performance in Rome cemented her as one of the greatest athletes of the 20th Century. She won three gold medals and broke several world records. Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field at the same Olympic Games. The indoor track and dormitory at Tennessee State University are named in honor of Rudolph. She died of a brain tumor on November 12, 1994.
N4A, which has been in existence since 1975, is a diverse educational service and professional non-profit organization. Membership of N4A includes academic support and student services personnel who are committed to enhancing opportunities for academic, athletics and personal success for student-athletes. For more information on N4A, visit www.nfoura.org. N4A is administered by NACDA, which is in its 56th year. For more information on NACDA and the 17 professional associations that fall under its umbrella, please visit www.nacda.com.
For more on the Purdue track & field and cross country program, visit PurdueSports.com/TrackField and follow and connect with the Boilermakers on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
The award honors student-athletes who have overcome great personal, academic and/or emotional odds to achieve academic success while participating in intercollegiate athletics.
A West Lafayette native, Harris was involved in a near-fatal car accident in November, 2019, that left her unable to walk for two months. Suffering extensive injuries and several surgeries, Harris has spent the past year and a half recovering. And although she is still not fully recovered, her drive, desire for normalcy and love for the competition fueled her return to the Purdue uniform.
Within months of her return to competition, Harris threw the No. 2 discus mark in program history to qualify for the NCAA postseason.
"I am incredibly honored to receive this award," Harris said. "The last one and a half years have been a struggle, but it's taught me to control the things that I can control and roll with the punches on the rest. I couldn't have done it without an amazing support system, and there are countless people to thank for helping me get to where I am today."
Harris, a thrower for the Boilermakers, double majors in marketing and kinesiology, with a minor in Spanish. She is a senior academically and a freshman athletically after transferring to Purdue in 2018 from the Air Force Academy.
"Anybody who knows Kaia knows that she's a person of optimism," Purdue coach Norbert Elliott said. "I've never seen Kaia without a smile on her face, never. Her sheer personality lends to her almost near-miraculous comeback from her accident. I was in the hospital so I saw with my very own eyes, several days later, her condition. To think that a year and a half later, she not only would progress as much as she did towards recovery, but throwing here at the NCAA Regional Championships, is nothing short of miraculous. It speaks to her optimism, I've never seen her with a frown on her face and she's always bright, bubbly and encouraging her teammates. She's just a great person. I think it's a well-deserved award and it couldn't have gone to a better person than Kaia."
Just a few short months into her second year at Purdue, Harris was in a car accident on a highway outside of West Lafayette. She spent the next two weeks in the hospital after suffering extensive injuries to her pelvis and internal organs, and was unable to walk for a full two months. Even then, it took additional surgery and extensive physical therapy before that was possible.
Despite the accident, Harris finished her classes in the fall of 2019 and took a full course load the following semester.
Although she is still not fully recovered, Harris has worked extensively with Purdue's athletic trainers and strength & conditioning staff to get back into competition shape. She competed in three indoor meets this season in the weight throw, then doubled her competition outdoors, throwing both the discus and hammer, including at the Big Ten Championships.
Harris had a pair of personal-best marks at the Big Ten North Florida Invite on April 2-3, highlighted by a discus throw of 54.11 meters, which is the second-best mark in the Purdue record books, which resulted in her first collegiate victory. To top off the meet, she added a personal-best of 52.89 meters in the hammer throw.
Harris' seventh outdoor meet of 2021 comes this Saturday, May 29, when she makes her NCAA debut at the NCAA East Prelims in Jacksonville, Florida.
Along with Harris, the 2021 Wilma Rudolph recipients are: Gia Hodges, University of Tennessee; Hunter Pinke, University of North Dakota; Bryand Rincher, Florida State University; Charles (Tre) Tipton, University of Pittsburgh; and Gwendolyn Zeckowski, University of Maryland. These six student-athletes will be honored in conjunction with the 2021 N4A Virtual Convention on June 23, which is Wilma Rudolph's birthday.
Each of the six honorees have persevered and made significant personal strides toward success.
About Wilma Rudolph: Despite being told as a child she would never walk again, Wilma Rudolph relentlessly pursued her dreams becoming an international track and field star. At the height of her career, "the fastest woman in the world" used her platform to shed light on social issues. Rudolph competed in the 1956 Olympic Games and won a bronze medal in 4x100 relay. Four years later, she headed to the 1960 Summer Olympics, determined to earn gold. Her performance in Rome cemented her as one of the greatest athletes of the 20th Century. She won three gold medals and broke several world records. Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field at the same Olympic Games. The indoor track and dormitory at Tennessee State University are named in honor of Rudolph. She died of a brain tumor on November 12, 1994.
N4A, which has been in existence since 1975, is a diverse educational service and professional non-profit organization. Membership of N4A includes academic support and student services personnel who are committed to enhancing opportunities for academic, athletics and personal success for student-athletes. For more information on N4A, visit www.nfoura.org. N4A is administered by NACDA, which is in its 56th year. For more information on NACDA and the 17 professional associations that fall under its umbrella, please visit www.nacda.com.
For more on the Purdue track & field and cross country program, visit PurdueSports.com/TrackField and follow and connect with the Boilermakers on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.