ODU NAMES 2005 ALL-USA CONTEST NOMINEES

Suzanne Sharkey of Virginia Beach and MaryCate Gordon of Oreland, Pa., recently were nominated as Old Dominion University's representatives to the 2005 USA Today All-USA College Academic Team.

USA Today honors outstanding students annually by naming its All-USA College Academic Team. The 10 students selected to the All-USA First Team will be pictured in the newspaper and receive a $2,500 cash award. Forty runners-up will be named to the Second and Third teams and will receive certificates of achievement and have their names in the newspaper.

Winners will be announced in the newspaper in February.

Sharkey, who is majoring in interdisciplinary studies/teacher preparation, plans on becoming an elementary-school teacher when she graduates in May 2006. The daughter of Marianne and John Sharkey, she has been a mainstay of Habitat for Humanity on the ODU campus.

Gordon is majoring in English and technical writing and plans a career in law and public service when she graduates in 2006. The daughter of Mary and Kevin Gordon, she is a third-year field hockey player for the perennially successful Lady Monarchs squad and pioneered a campus security task force.

Both Kristine Gonzalez, a 1999 Old Dominion graduate from Suffolk, and Rosemarie Liu, a 2002 graduate from Burke, Va., were named to the competition's Third Team in the last four years. Linda K. Wolfe, a 2003 ODU graduate, received Honorable Mention honors in last year's contest.