MEDFORD, Mass. - Tufts University national champion swimmer Katelin Isakoff has been named as one of two recipients nationwide of the 2025 Walter Byers Graduate Scholarship, one of the NCAA's highest academic awards.

Established in 1988, the Walter Byers Scholarship program annually awards $24,000 scholarships to one male and one female student-athlete. The scholarship, which may be renewed for a second year, honors those who combine excellence in academics and athletics and show potential as future leaders.

Isakoff was a two-time NCAA champion with Jumbos' 400 freestyle relay in 2023 and the 800 freestyle relay in 2022. She is now pursuing her medical degree at Stanford.

She is the second Jumbo to earn this prestigious scholarship, joining track national champion Mitchell Black who received it in 2016. Tufts is the only Division III school in the country to have two recipients of the Walter Byers Graduate Scholarship.

In the pool, Isakoff was an eight-time All-American overall and seven-time conference champion during her time at Tufts. She helped lead the Jumbos to their first-ever New England Small College Athletic Conference championship in 2022, and then a repeat of the conference title in 2023. The sixth-place NCAA finish by the 2023 team she was on matched the best-ever at Tufts.

"Katelin came to Tufts and our program and had tremendous growth over her four years," said Adam Hoyt, head coach of swimming & diving at Tufts. "We saw this growth in her athletic development, leadership development, and academic development.  Katelin was involved in all aspects of Tufts and pushed herself daily to be the best she could be.  Katelin continues to support our program and has been a great role model for our team, as well as an example of what's possible to achieve while a student-athlete at Tufts.  This award is well deserved and we're so proud of Katelin and excited to continue to follow her growth in her post-grad years."

Academically, she graduated summa cum laude from Tufts, doing so in seven semesters, and was named a First Team Academic All-American in 2023. She was a recipient of an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship in May 2024. After graduating in December 2023, she took a gap year before starting med school and worked full-time in the spring as a Clinical Research Assistant at the Center for Health Solutions at Tufts Medical Center. She has also worked as a Healthcare Research Associate for a research services firm.

"During Katelin's time in the lab, I found her to be a highly motivated student with enormous intellectual capacity and scientific ability," said Mitch McVey, Professor of Biology at Tufts. "At the same time, I saw how she doesn't let her ambition get in the way of her humanity. She was always willing to help her labmates when they were struggling with a procedure or just trying to get their lab tasks finished before class. In addition, she was a vocal advocate for inclusion and diversity, making sure that new students were quickly integrated into the lab family. I am confident that her sense of humanity, combined with her impressive intellect, will make her an extraordinary physician."

A leader in and out of the pool, Isakoff founded and served as president of Tufts' chapter of The Hidden Opponent, a national nonprofit focused on destigmatizing student-athlete mental health. She also served as a volunteer EMT and mentored students through Big Brothers Big Sisters, as well as in Tufts' pre-orientation program.

Isakoff noted in her Walter Byers Graduate Scholarship application essay how her personal and professional experiences solidified her desire to pursue a career in medicine, with goals of advancing health equity, exploring the field of orthopedics, and advocating for female athletes. As part of Stanford's Leadership in Health Disparities Program, she is already laying the foundation for a career centered on inclusive patient care and systemic change.

"As a physician, I hope to combine my passion for athletics with my understanding of the influence of mental health on physical health, along with the impact of illness on long term well-being," Isakoff said in her essay. "I am prepared to excel within the rigor of medical education because of my success balancing the responsibilities of a student-athlete. In the face of challenges that a career in medicine will bring, I will maintain the same distinctive resiliency and dedication that led to my athletic and academic achievements."

Isakoff was also recently selected for the Albert Schweitzer Service and Leadership Fellowship, which is a selective year-long service and leadership development program that supports graduate students interested in addressing unmet health needs in underserved communities. Isakoff is launching a project to promote water safety education with a goal of reducing disparities in drowning rates for children living below the federal poverty line.

Mason Nichols, who starts on the mound for the Ole Miss baseball team, and who will enter medical school following his graduation in May, is the other Walter Byers Scholarship recipient.

Past Walter Byers Scholarship Honorees

Year	Male			Female
	Athlete	Sport	School	Athlete	Sport	School
1989	Richard Hall	Basketball	Ball State University	Regina Cavanagh	Track and field	Rice University
1990	Dean Smith	Basketball	University of Maine	Linda Popovich	Volleyball	Bowling Green State University
1991	J. David Brown	Track and field Cross country	University of Iowa	Marie Roethlisberger	Gymnastics	University of Minnesota
1992	David Honea	Cross country	North Carolina State University	Sigall Kassutto	Gymnastics	University of California, Berkeley
1993	Rob Pelinka	Basketball	University of Michigan	Sheryl Klemme	Basketball	Saint Joseph's College (Indiana)
1994	Randal Pinkett	Track and field	Rutgers University	Christa Gannon	Basketball	University of California, Santa Barbara
1995	Robert Zatechka	Football	University of Nebraska–Lincoln	Carla Ainsworth	Swimming	Kenyon College
1996	Christopher Palmer	Football	St. John's University (Minnesota)	Tracey Holmes	Golf	University of Kentucky
1997	Scott Keane	Track and field	University of Cincinnati	Marya Morusiewicz	Volleyball	Barry University
1998	Robert "Brad" Gray	Football	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Marsha Harris	Basketball	New York University
1999	Samuel "Calvin" Thigpen	Track and field Cross country	University of Mississippi	Gladys Ganiel	Track and field Cross country	Providence College
2000	Matthew Busbee	Swimming	Auburn University	Anna Hallbergson	Tennis	Barry University
2001	Bradley Henderson	Basketball	University of Chicago	Kimberly Black	Swimming	University of Georgia
2002	Kyle Eash	Football Track and field	Illinois Wesleyan University	Claudia Veritas	Lacrosse	Wellesley College
2003	McLain "Mac" Schneider	Football	University of North Dakota	Natalie Halbach	Gymnastics	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2004	Joaquin Zalacain	Tennis	University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras	Corrin Drakulich	Track and field	University of Georgia
2005	Matthew Gunn	Track and field Cross country	University of Arkansas	Sarah Dance	Swimming	Truman State University
2006	Bryan Norrington	Track and field	Colorado College	Annie Bersagel	Track and field Cross country	Wake Forest University
2007	Dane Todd	Football	University of Nebraska–Lincoln	Katie Kingsbury	Tennis	Washington and Lee University
2008	Dylan Carney	Gymnastics	Stanford University	Brenna Burns	Track and field Cross country	Davidson College
2009	Craig Sheedy	Diving	University of Arizona	Amy Massey	Soccer	University of Southern California
2010	Joshua Mahoney	Football	University of Northern Iowa	Katherine Theisen	Track and field Cross country	University of St. Thomas
2011	J. David Gatz	Swimming	Ohio Wesleyan University	Jessica Pixlar	Track and field Cross country	Seattle Pacific University
2012	Miles Batty	Track and field Cross Country	Brigham Young University	Kelsey Ward	Swimming	Drury University
2013	Matt Horn	Soccer	Winthrop University	Alexa Duling	Track and field	University of South Dakota
2014	Kyle Boden	Football	Emory and Henry College	Karenee Demery	Soccer	California State University, Stanislaus
2015	Tofey James "T.J." Leon IV	Swimming	Auburn University	Lucinda Kauffman	Field Hockey	Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania
2016	Mitchell Black	Track and Field	Tufts University	Katherine Riojas	Soccer	University of Tulsa
2017	George Bugarinovic	Basketball	Johns Hopkins University	Nandini Mehta	Soccer	Northwestern University
2018	Michael Seward	Hockey	Harvard University	Jennifer Carmichael	Track and Field	University of Oklahoma
2019	Derek Soled	Fencing	Yale University	Rachael Acker	Swimming	University of California, Berkeley
2020	Xavier Gonzalez	Tennis	Harvard University	Kayla Leland	Cross Country Basketball Track and Field	Whitworth University
2021	Ivo Cerda	Soccer	University of Michigan	Asia Seidt	Swimming	University of Kentucky
2022	Gavin Turner	Fencing	Pennsylvania State University	Mackenzie Niness	Swimming	Villanova University
2023	Dylan Kim	Fencing	Princeton University	Logan Eggleston	Volleyball	University of Texas