Manhasset High School alum Erin Connors recently received Fairfield University’s Outstanding Student Achievement Award.
“I cannot express in words how thankful I am to receive this award. And some of that thanks goes to my coaches Jackie Kane and Joey Civico who gave me a chance August of 2012,” Connors said at the award ceremony on April 19.
During her time at Fairfield University, Connors served as the captain of the field hockey team, tour ambassador, senior admissions fellow, co-chair for publicity and chair of social media for Relay for Life and served as president of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee.
Among her many accomplishments, the school singled out her commitment to Fairfield University athletics.
Connors lead the field hockey team to a MAAC Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in 2015.
“Athletics at Fairfield has shaped who I am today and has made me a better player and teammate,” Connors said. “When I decided to go to Fairfield, it wasn’t for athletics but I ended walking on to the team. Just being a walk on, it shows that my commitment and love for field hockey is being recognized.”
To win the award given annually, students must have shown exceptional dedication to and enhancement of a specific Fairfield University program, activity, organization, or project, the school said in a statement.
“I couldn’t go out like all the other students,” Connors said. “But it helped me with time management. I knew what it was like to work, and study and going to practice altogether.”
The 21-year-old Connors graduated in April with a marketing degree and has landed a job at Indeed.com after interning with the company last summer.
“I remember when my friends got the award a few years ago thinking how great that was. I was shocked to get the phone call that I had won this award, and it’s just a great feeling to know I made a difference in some aspect of the community,” she said.
Connors was team captain in her senior year of the Manhasset High School field hockey team and was an All-County Selection and an Academic All-American.
She also lettered in lacrosse and winter track.
Off the field, Connors was a member of Key Club and Student Government, according to her Fairfield University biography. She was a tutor at a local community center and is a professionally certified, level one snowboard instructor.
The biography noted that Connors’s mother, Mary Kay, was a gymnast at Rutgers University and her father, Keith, played lacrosse at Villanova.
Her sister, Katie, plays field hockey at Colgate University, and her sister, Courtney, is a member of the Fairfield tennis team, according to her biography.
She also has a brother, Ryan, who is 14.
