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SALISBURY, MD---When Nadeem Boggerty began his first semester at ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ in 2018, one thought occupied his mind more than any other: football.

The Dover, DE, native spent three years dividing his time on the field and in the classroom as a Sea Gull student-athlete before leaning into academics on his way toward earning his B.S. in exercise science.

In his senior year, he joined SU’s TRIO Student Support Services Program, where he discovered a diverse and supportive community not unlike what he encountered on the football field.

“It felt like home,” he said.

He found an advocate in Dr. Margaret Sebastian, TRIO program director. She immediately noted Boggerty’s academic potential and helped him rediscover his game plan.

“She saw something in me,” he said. “She said, ‘You’re going to go to grad school.’”

It was not something he previously had considered. In fact, he was opposed to the idea at first. Then Sebastian introduced him to TRIO’s Future Talks initiative, designed to educate students about graduate school options and walk them through the application, acceptance and enrollment process.

This year, the program expanded from individual conversations to graduate school trips on the last Friday of each month during the spring semester, enabling more students to see themselves applying and attending graduate school, Sebastian said.

Armed with that experience, Boggerty began to see the idea of graduate school as not not only possible, but an ideal way to pursue his ultimate goal of becoming a university athletic director. With Sebastian’s help, he applied to the master’s program in sports and recreation leadership at James Madison University, where he not only was accepted, but received a $40,000 graduate assistantship to help pay his way.

“This program will equip me with the leadership skills, on a bigger level, to direct and engage with different populations in regard to various sports and different people at the professional level and in a professional setting,” he said.

“We are all proud of him,” said Sebastian. “Our professional and student staff get to create a supportive environment that allows students to create new dreams.”

Though Boggerty is looking forward to the next step in his academic journey, he said he will miss the connections he has made at SU. In addition to TRIO and the football team, he also found support through membership in the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and Bethel Campus Fellowship.

He will join fellow members of those organizations and many others during SU’s annual Spring Commencement ceremonies Wednesday-Thursday, May 24-25, at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center. Some 1,368 students earn their bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees as members of the University’s spring Class of 2023.

For more information about SU’s TRIO Student Support Services Program, visit the program's webpage.

Learn more about opportunities to Make Tomorrow Yours at the SU website.