The reality of being a Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship recipient can be overwhelming. Just ask Amy Massey and Craig Sheedy, the 2009 recipients of the NCAA’s prestigious award.

The Byers Scholarships were established in 1988 and recognize the contributions of former NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. The $24,000 awards recognize academic achievement, character and leadership.

Massey, who played soccer at Southern California, and Sheedy, a diver at Arizona, more than meet those standards.

Massey graduated from Southern California with a degree in communications and this fall will attend Oxford University in England where she will work in a one-year program to obtain a master’s degree in forced migration.

“I will be learning about people and groups who have been forced to move due to political turmoil, genocide or natural disasters,” said Massey, who was a member of Southern California’s 2007 NCAA championship soccer team her junior year.

She will be studying international human rights and also theories and practices behind humanitarian efforts.

“I will get to see the more practical and realistic side of it rather than just learning about the theoretical side,” Massey said.

While at Oxford, she will compete on the women’s soccer – make that the football – team.

“It will be interesting to step off the soccer field and onto the pitch,” Massey said. “I’ll try to transform from being a soccer player at USC to a footballer at Oxford. I’ll be able to play on the varsity team as a graduate student.”

Massey was an outside and central defender in her student-athlete days. She played her freshman and sophomore years at St. Mary’s (California) before transferring to Southern California, which was closer to roots in Manhattan Beach, California.

While at Southern California, she organized a recycling effort that raised money for Water Wells for Africa. Massey sparked so much interest for the cause that the entire athletics department became involved.

“Sometimes I had more bottles and cans than I knew what to do with,” Massey said. “I filled up my truck and would take the bottles and cans to turn them in for money. I’ve been able to leave a small legacy there because another student-athlete has taken over the program.”

It takes $6,000 to pay for a well that can provide drinking water for impoverished people in Africa.

Massey learned about water needs on a mission to Malawi. Her first trip to the southeast African nation came while she was in high school. She went back before her sophomore year in college.

“Only 37 percent of the population has access to clean water located within a kilometer of where they live,” Massey said. “It is a big burden on the women who have to go fetch water every day. The trip is often three or four hours long. They have to come back to take care of their families.”

She was even able to train for soccer while helping to improve others’ lives.

“There were barely dirt roads in some of the places we traveled,” Massey said. “So any time we were on a road that was bumpy or we had to go slow on, our pastor would kick me out of the van and tell me it was time to run.”

It wasn’t unusual for the children to follow Massey as she ran. She described it as being similar to the scene in “Rocky II” when he ran through downtown Philadelphia with hundreds of kids in tow.

Massey has already been accepted to law school and will attend Pepperdine after her year at Oxford. She plans to focus on international law and help those who have been forced into international slavery/human trafficking and child prostitution.

“From a young age, I’ve been taught by my parents to think outside of myself and to think about issues globally that affect others,” Massey said. “I will have time to figure out exactly what I can do to help people.”

Heading to medical school

Sheedy was a late bloomer when it came to diving, but he has always had a love of science, which has led him to attend medical school at Vanderbilt.

He grew up in Tempe, Arizona, competing in gymnastics but switched to diving when his high school launched a team.

He started his sophomore year and eventually became accomplished enough to dive at Arizona, where he was the co-captain of the team his final season.

“It was definitely a late start for me in diving,” said Sheedy, who graduated with degrees in biochemistry and molecular biophysics with a second major in physiology and a minor in Spanish.

He noted similarities between diving and gymnastics that made the transition smoother.

“You have the jumping and twisting in both sports,” Sheedy said. “One of the hard things to pick up was landing head first in diving. You definitely don’t do that in gymnastics.”

After two years of diving on the club team at Arizona, he made the varsity squad.

But competing wasn’t his only passion at Arizona. He also volunteered to do community-service projects at the Boys/Girls Club and Grace Home, which is an orphanage. He also volunteered weekly at the Tucson Medical Center in the pediatrics unit, where he read to children, played video games and worked on arts and crafts with the patients.

“It was a nice break from school and practice,” Sheedy said.

His interest in community came from his parents, who took his family to kitchens where they would help feed the homeless.

“We were encouraged to do that at a young age, and once I got into college I continued with it,” Sheedy said. “It is something I’ve always enjoyed doing.”

Sheedy plans to focus on pediatrics.

“I was also thinking of having some sort of sub-specialty like cardiology,” he said. “That’s my plan, but the students I’ve talked to in medical school say that even if you know what you want to do, it can change because you’ll find something new you love.”

Sheedy is the first person from Arizona to receive a Byers Scholarship, which is another reason he was excited to hear the news.

“It is such a great opportunity that something like this is even offered to us,” Sheedy said. “It was an amazing experience to be a student-athlete. I’m sad to be leaving the University of Arizona, but it is time to move on.”