Courtesy of Florida A&M Athletic Communications
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. | Former Florida A&M University track & field student-athlete Alelee Figueroa, the 2019-20 MEAC Woman of the Year, has been selected as an NCAA Woman of the Year Top 30 honoree.
Selected from a record 605 school nominees — a group that was then narrowed to 161 nominees by conference offices — the Top 30 honorees include 10 from each of the three NCAA divisions. All have demonstrated excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership. The honorees competed in 14 sports and studied a broad range of academic majors, including nursing, mechanical engineering, biochemistry, criminal justice, kinesiology, accounting and advertising.
The Orlando, Fla., native won the MEAC championship in the hammer throw at the 2019 MEAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships (50.42 meters; 165 feet, five inches), and she also won that event this past indoor season at the KMS Invitational. She was part of a Rattler squad that won the 2018 MEAC women's outdoor track & field championship, edging North Carolina A&T State by half a point.
Graduating this past May with a 3.90 GPA in Criminal Justice (concentration in Pre-Law Studies), Figueroa had the highest GPA in both the MS3 and MS4 classes of the Florida A&M Army ROTC Rattler Battalion. She was a Distinguished Scholar awardee in 2016, and Figueroa was named both a National Society of Collegiate Scholars inductee and a Nutrition L.E.A.D.S. Scholar in 2017.
In 2019, Figueroa, who earned FAMU's first Woman of the Year honor, was an IFPO Protection Officer Certification Awardee from the International Organization of Black Security Executives (IOBSE) and a recipient of the FAMU Army ROTC Rattler Battalion's Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry Award.
In addition to serving in the Army ROTC Rattler Battalion all four years, Figueroa was busy in the community. In 2017, she volunteered at the Wakulla County Community Center, tending to the community garden, cleaning and preparing harvested fruits and vegetables and promoting nutrition at community events. From 2018-20, she was a volunteer lead and pageant candidate with the Big Bend Filipino-American Association; not only did she help coordinate all community outreach events and fundraise for the Bantay Bata charity, she also represented Tallahassee, Fla. in the annual national pageant.
Figueroa was an S-2 Expansion and security officer for the National Society of Pershing Angels Sorority, Inc. in 2019, managing security clearance issues and providing both intelligence oversight and physical security. She was an S-3 Operations and Training Officer this year, on top of serving as Vice President of Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity, International, FAMU Pre-Law Chapter (which she helped re-charter), and HBCU for Life Committee Co-Chair for the Beta Alpha Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
The NCAA Woman of the Year program is rooted in Title IX and has recognized graduating female college athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership since its inception in 1991.
The selection committee will announce nine finalists, including three women from each NCAA division, in mid-October. From those finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will select the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year. The Top 30 will be celebrated, and the Woman of the Year will be named this fall.