West Babylon, N.Y. - On Thursday morning, the East Coast Conference announced that Dan Smith of the St. Thomas Aquinas Men's Track & Field team was selected as a 2022-23 winner of the conference’s Excellence in Community and Character Award.
Recipients of the ECC’s most prestigious award are student-athletes who have distinguished themselves through positive actions and behaviors that are consistent with the NCAA Division II attributes of learning, service, passion, sportsmanship, balance, and resourcefulness.
Athletically, Smith (West Nyack, N.Y) competed as a member of the St. Thomas Aquinas men's track & field team in throwing events. This outdoor season, he was a Second Team All-ECC selection after finishing fourth in the hammer throw (34.41m) at the ECC Championship.
In addition to his athletic prowess, Smith excelled in the classroom, earning his undergraduate degree in Finance with over a 3.5 GPA while pursuing two minors in Accounting and Economics.
Smith has also demonstrated acts of service in many ways. He was an orientation leader for the incoming 2026 class, Treasurer of Student Government, and a student representative for STAC's Campus Wellness Committee along with a host of other roles. As a result of Dan's service, he received the Terence Cardinal Cooke Award for meritorious service at commencement in May.
Smith was proactive in taking advantage of the many resources offered at STAC, among them the Career Development Center and the Alumni Network. He used STAC's Alumni Network to get in contact with professionals in the financial services and accounting industries. This led to Smith participating in the KPMG Mentorship program through STAC where he regularly met with an Alum who works in KPMG's Advisory Business Intelligence sector to learn more about the field and understand how to get his job search started. As a result, Dan has an accounting internship planned for the summer which will more than likely lead to a full-time position for him in the fall.
2022-23 ECC EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNITY AND CHARACTER AWARD RELEASE