WINTHROP, Mass. – Simmons cross country runner Alice Najimy '22 was one of seven female student-athletes to be named a finalist for the 2022 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Woman of the Year announced by the league earlier this week.

Najimy has had a decorated career both on and off the course before graduating from Simmons with a Bachelor's degree in nursing. A three-time All-GNAC first team recipient, she registered multiple outstanding performances on the course throughout her tenure, including becoming the program's second GNAC Rookie of the Year in 2018. In 2021, returning to competition for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Najimy guided the Sharks to their highest finish in five years, placing second with 72 points.

Away from athletics, Najimy has excelled in the classroom earning numerous academic honors to cap off her senior year. In addition to the receiving the 2022 Simmons Senior Student Athlete of the Year Award, she was presented with the Adrielle Warwick Award, given to the senior nursing student who exhibits the love for learning. Najimy also garnered the Marjorie Keazirian Award and the Judy A. Beal Nursing Award. 

Outside of the classroom, Najimy served the community in numerous roles. She volunteered her at Rosie's Place – a safe and nurturing place that helps poor and homeless women seek opportunities and find security in their lives. She also was a member of the Student Nurses Association and mentor for college first-years with the Foundation To Be Named Later. Najimy also helped raise money for the Brigham and Women's Hospital Charity which allowed her to compete in her first Boston Marathon in April 2022.

The GNAC winner will be announced in late July and will be put forth as the league's representative for the NCAA Woman of the Year.

Personal Statement: "I entered college athletics envisioning that the most important finish lines I would cross would be at the end of my 6K races. Four years later, I realize that while those finish lines were each meaningful on their own, the greater journey they took me on taught me lessons that shaped me as a future nurse and human being. I can attribute so much of my success and growth to being an NCAA athlete. Being a captain taught me how to lead and showed me the power that being an athlete holds in enacting change. Not only in the context of leading team stretches, but in the context of bringing 15 teammates who were hundreds of miles apart together virtually on a zoom call to support each other through a pandemic.

I learned how to give people space to talk about what was happening in our world, and use our sport to make a difference. During the pandemic, amidst the racial injustice that was occurring, I organized a fundraiser where we ran to encourage friends and family to donate to the Equal Justice Initiative. Through our collective efforts, my team raised over $2,000. Witnessing the impact that this had on myself and my teammates exemplified how in a time when the focus of athletics was no longer on competition, the true gifts that our sport gives to us, such as a sense of community and empowerment, can be uncovered in a new way. This lesson inspired me to fulfill my lifelong dream of running the Boston Marathon for 'Brigham and Women's Stepping Strong' charity in the spring of my final semester.

Alongside running, being a nursing student has always been a central part of my collegiate identity. Raising money for trauma research would allow me to use the sport that has supported me my entire college experience, to then bring awareness to and support the patients I would one day be taking care of. The discipline of my past four years as a college athlete prepared me to put in the physical effort it would take to train for a marathon. While I was expecting to put in the work myself, I was not prepared for the incredible amount of support that others were willing to give to me. Running the marathon showed me that an individual can best fulfill their potential when they have the support and encouragement of their community. Because of my family, teammates, friends, both old and new, I was able to finish the marathon and qualify for next years too. While the marathon would be the last finish line I crossed during my time as a college athlete, the lessons in leadership, community and charity that these past four years taught me will allow me to cross countless others."