Janaki Jagannathan continues The College of Wooster's recent run of NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients, as the women's tennis alumna is the Fighting Scots' 14th selection over the last five academic years. Wooster's 14 selections in that timespan rate as the third-most across the entire NCAA, behind Stanford University and Emory University.
"I am honored to have received such a prestigious recognition, and it feels like the perfect way to cap my Wooster journey," shared Jagannathan. "I am beyond grateful to The College of Wooster for providing the space and resources to pursue academics, athletics, and other extracurriculars in meaningful ways. A special thank you to Dr. Susan Clayton, Coach Amy Behrman, and Julia Zimmer for assisting me with the application process. Each of them has played a pivotal role in my college career and I would not have come this far without them."
Jagannathan concluded her women's tennis career as a seven-time All-North Coast Athletic Conference selection, earning four honors in singles and three in doubles. The alumna earned NCAC Newcomer of the Year honors as a first-year and became just the second player in program history to win 100 matches as a senior. Jagannathan's 57 singles wins are the second-most in program history and she is one of just four 50-match winners in the program annals. In doubles, her 45 wins are the sixth-most in program history. Thirty-two of Jagannathan's wins came at No. 1 doubles, which rate as the third-most at Wooster.
For Independent Study, the psychology alumna studied how race ties to sibling rivalry. For the project, Jagannathan linked race and sibling rivalry to resilience, motivation, self-esteem, and depression. Earlier in her undergraduate studies, Jagannathan analyzed the return of Korean adoptees from the United States to South Korea and how neo-colonial relations between the two countries sustained transnational adoption for six decades.
Jagannathan spent last summer interning at the Cleveland Clinic as a group counselor. She collaborated with other counselors and doctors to help children and families manage ADHD symptoms. Jagannathan utilized therapy techniques to create individualized treatment programs.
On campus, Jagannathan served as vice president for Mind Matters, a student organization that advocates for and educates the campus community about mental health and available resources on campus. She was the president and events coordinator for the South Asia committee, a peer tutor for psychology courses, and worked in the Academic Research Center.
Jagannathan will begin graduate studies in mental health counseling at Boston College's Lynch School of Education this fall. She will utilize her NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship to further her pursuit towards providing culturally competent mental health counseling.
Jagannathan is Wooster's first women's tennis NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipient. She joins men's soccer alumnus Max Wiley and women's swimming and diving alumna Ollie Bream as NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients for the 2024-25 academic year. Wooster's three recipients led the NCAC and were more than the entire Ivy League. Wooster has 33 all-time NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients, 19 of which have been selected since 2018. The NCAA awards 126 postgraduate scholarships annually and there are just 21 scholarships available for men and 21 for women in each sports season.
