Jackson Pass recognized as LCC's Academic Excellence Award recipient
Jackson Colby Pass of Haw River will tell you he came to Lenoir Community College in 2019 to play baseball, but he did must more than that. He excelled in the classroom as well as the baseball diamond putting the emphasis on student. “As a student athlete, you are a student first and an athlete second,” he said. “I have always had a drive growing up to be the best student in the classroom and the best player on the field. In order to play baseball, I needed to get good grades.” “I have always had a taste for perfectionism, which led to a 4.32 grade point average in high school, top 25 in my graduating class of around 400 students, and a 4.0 grade point average at LCC,” he said.
Those academic achievements were just one of the reasons he was selected as LCC’s Academic Excellence Award recipient this year. He was recognized as one of Great 58 in the North Carolina Community College System. The award is presented annually to a currently enrolled student who demonstrates dedication to their educational goals in an associate degree program and maintaining a cumulative grade point average of a 3.25 or higher. Pass balanced his love of education with his love of baseball. “I have played baseball since I was 3 years old,” he said. “My love for the game came from watching my cousin,
Dallas, who is six years older than me, play. I remember going to every game of his that I could and he would teach me things about baseball that would allow me to become a better ball player, like helping me learn how to turn double plays quicker and the proper footwork to use while turning them. I just wanted to be like my cousin Dallas.”
Pass who played second base, third base and shortstop with the LCC Lancers graduated in May with an Associate in Arts degree and he plans to transfer to East Carolina University in the fall to pursue a degree in sports management, and hopes to obtain a job in the athletic department, while in school. After college, he plans to work in the minor leagues and eventually the majors.