Student-Athlete Gets Rewarded for Success

Rancho Verde’s High School Football Linebacker Marcus Lee-McDuffie who wears jersey #33, is a definitive example of a student athlete. He recently received the Senior Scholar Athlete of the Year Award. The award is given to one male and one female athlete each year with the highest GPA (GPA must be at least 3.5) and who has contributed the most to their sport. Marcus is also in the top five percent of his class and makes the Principal Honor Roll every year despite spending several hours a week on the football field. He will be graduating Magna Cum Laude, and received a 4.17 on his Spring 2014 report card, most definitely proving that you can do well as an athlete and in class. Some assume that athletes don’t take school serious, well Marcus Lee-McDuffie has indeed proved this assumption wrong. He is exemplary of a student athlete. Marcus's other academic accolades this year include receiving: Presidential Award for Educational Excellence-Barack Obama and the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma. Additionally, based on his leadership and academic promise he was recently chosen as one of four students from over 2,000 candidates that attended the 2014 Student Leadership Forum in Sacramento, California at the state capital. He was also one of three students chosen to speak at National Voters Registration Day at Rancho Verde High School to encourage students to get out and vote. Marcus is also Vice President of the Link Krew and serves as a peer counselor motivating students to study and to value education. Marcus will be attending Occidental College in the fall; the same college that President Barack Obama attended for two years before transferring over to Columbia University. Marcus will be majoring in Biochemistry and playing football as a linebacker for the Occidental Tigers.