FRISCO, Texas – Four student-athletes – Lamar's Brittany Ross, McNeese State's Ben Bourgeois, Northwestern State's Miles Parsons and Southeastern Louisiana's Josh Cryer – have been awarded the Southland Conference's F.L. McDonald Postgraduate Scholarship, presented by Toyota. Each student-athlete's accomplishment will be celebrated during the Southland Honors Ceremony May 24 in Galveston, Texas.

The McDonald Scholarship is the league's ultimate academic honor for its top graduates. The award is presented annually to graduating male and female letterwinners with the highest cumulative grade-point averages during their enrollment at Southland Conference universities. The $2,500 scholarship must be applied to graduate study at an institution of the recipient's choice.

A native of Leesville, La., Cryer has a 4.00 GPA with a bachelor's in accounting. He plans to continue his education at LSU with the goal of completing graduate school, taking the CPA exam and working for a CPA firm in Louisiana.

A three-time, first-team all-academic selection and a CoSIDA All-District VI honoree, Cryer was the 2010 Southland Conference Baseball Scholar Athlete of the Year and was also earned 2010 third-team All-Southland Conference honors at catcher. This season, Cryer is first on the team with 13 doubles and third with 37 runs batted in.

Cryer is the sixth Southeastern student-athlete, and third in the past two years, to be awarded the F.L. McDonald Postgraduate Scholarship. Cory Roberts (track and field) and Dana Mayer (women's soccer) were recipients in 2010 while Milos Vasovic (men's tennis) and Janice Ezegbunam (women's track and field) were named in 2004 and Kim Kwolek (women's soccer) in 2000.

Ross, a native of Carrollton, Texas, is a member of the Lamar women's soccer team. As an undergraduate, she posted a 4.00 GPA while double majoring in exercise science and psychology and has plans to continue her education at Duke University, with the goal of becoming a pediatric physical therapist. She played in 57 games during the last four seasons as a defender and was named to the Southland Conference Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll all four years.

Bourgeois, a native of Sulphur, La., achieved a 4.00 GPA with a bachelor's in mechanical engineering while playing football at McNeese State. He plans to stay at McNeese and pursue a master's in business administration. Bourgeois began his playing career as a fullback, where he lettered two seasons before moving to punter. Last year, he averaged 37.0 yards on 55 punts and landed 21 inside the 20-yard line. Bourgeois longest punt covered 49 yards.

Parsons, a native of Zachary, La., has a 4.00 GPA with a bachelor's in health and exercise science and a minor in general studies. He plans on attending medical school at LSU in New Orleans. A catcher on the Northwestern State baseball team, Parsons has played in 56 games in three seasons after redshirting his freshman year. In 2009, he started 23 of the 35 games he played in behind the plate and hit .231 with 13 RBI.

The award was established in memory of Dr. F.L. McDonald in 1996-97, a former president of Lamar University and 1999 Southland Hall of Honor inductee. McDonald served as Lamar's president in 1963 when the Southland Conference was established and is considered one of the league's founding fathers.

Each member institution may nominate one male and one female student-athlete who meet the following criteria: a letterwinner in a conference sport, be on track to graduate during the spring in which they are nominated or the subsequent summer, and plan to attend graduate school no later than the second fall following receipt of the award.

This is the first year for Toyota to present the F.L. McDonald Postgraduate Scholarship program. Toyota has been a corporate partner of the Southland Conference for each of the last three years and sponsors Academic Fair at the basketball tournament and also the football and basketball games of the week on the Southland Conference Television Network.