Bekah Ansbro, a pitcher on Mason's softball team, was honored during her junior season for her athletic and academic accomplishments. Photo courtesy Mason Athletics.
For Bekah Ansbro, the most rewarding part of being at George Mason University is the myriad opportunities available as a health, fitness and recreation resources major.
Ansbro finished her bachelor’s degree in May and is on track to complete her accelerated master’s program in sport and recreation studies with a concentration in sport management in 2020. Her experiences at Mason helped her secure a competitive summer internship in American University’s sports compliance office, which ensures the athletics department is informed about and complies with NCAA and conference policies.
“My classes at Mason helped me approach this job search in a professional and ambitious way,” Ansbro said. “I have been fortunate enough to have opportunities to work in events, supervision, marketing, ticketing and, now, compliance. It certainly made me more appreciative of all the work our administrators do for us, and it has allowed me to get a jump-start on my career goals.”
She also starred for the Mason softball team
The right-handed pitcher from Woodstock, Virginia, had an 8-11 record last season. She led Mason and was third in the Atlantic 10 Conference with a 2.42 earned-run average. Ansbro’s 100 strikeouts were second on the team and fifth in the conference, and she was a two-time conference Pitcher of the Week.
Named an All-Mid Atlantic third-team player by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, Ansbro also received the John R. Linn Memorial Award for the Outstanding Student Athlete in Mason’s School of Recreation, Health and Tourism in the College of Education and Human Development. The award goes to the student-athlete who achieved the highest overall GPA.
“Mason has high academic standards and strives every year to have a student-athlete population with a higher GPA than the entire student body,” she said. “So to know that I was chosen out of all the intelligent men and women on our teams was very exciting.”
“Bekah is a very serious student who was always in class, attentive and willing to offer her perspective to the discussion,” said associate professor Craig Esherick, associate director of Mason’s Center for Sport Management. “She has a tremendous work ethic, and I expect big things from Bekah going forward.”
“The best thing about Mason is all the opportunities I had there—the location, the academics, the culture and much more,” Ansbro said. “And because I was able to work in so many different areas of college athletics, I have become a more well-rounded young professional.”