Trinity's Davis and Lewins Receive Awards
for Athletics and Community Service

 Trinity College

Hartford, Conn., May 20 - Men’s rowing senior Ben Davis (Wyndmoor, Pa.) and women’s squash senior co-captain Samantha Lewins (Bromley, Zimbabwe) were selected as the 2001-02 recipients of Trinity College’s Robert R. Bartlett Awards. The Bartlett Awards are presented annually to the College’s top male and female student-athletes who have combined athletic excellence with a devotion to community and/or campus service.

Samantha Lewins '02

The Bantam varsity men’s rowing squad, coached by Steve Fluhr, posted a 4-4 record this season and finished 12th in the New England Championships this season.

The Bantam women’s squash squad, coached by Wendy Bartlett, posted a perfect 11-0 record and captured its first Women’s Intercollegiate Squash Association (WISA) Howe Cup Team Championship title.

Davis, although unable to compete this season due to a back injury, helped the freshman eight crew and the second varsity crews post a combined 24-0 record in his first three years. His boat placed second in its division at the New England Championships in his freshman and junior campaigns and first in his sophomore year.

Davis founded a social justice activism group on campus (Voices Organized in Democracy, VOID), which has been a loyal supporter of several local unions, educated students regarding the plight of workers in Hartford, and co-sponsored a tax bill in Connecticut aimed at eliminating child poverty. Davis has also helped organize welfare recipients to lobby for their rights and reform of welfare laws, participated in food drives for welfare recipients, and served as an academic advisor for freshman seminar students on campus. He majored in political science at Trinity.

Lewins, a three-time NESCAC Winter All-Academic selection, posted an 8-6 record this season including a 7-3 dual match mark, playing the No. 4 position for the Bantams. An All-American performer in 1999-00 and 2000-01, Lewins was Trinity’s Junior Female Scholar Athlete of the Year last year and its Senior Female Scholar Athlete of the Year this season. Initiated into Connecticut’s Phi Beta Kappa this spring, Lewins was the No. 24-ranked player in all of intercollegiate squash this season and finished her career with a 43-29 record (6th most wins in College history).

Lewins played a major role in organizing the freshman orientation this year and serves as a member of the Trinity Center for Collaborative Teaching and Research. An academic mentor and a resource person for international students, she helped organize the Hartford Olympics Day for neighborhood public school students, and helped develop research on the effect of athletic participation on academic performance. Lewins is a graduate of the Chisiple School in Zimbabwe, and achieved a 3.74 GPA as a history major at Trinity.