PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania's sprint football program is pleased to announce that senior Ryan Leone is one of eight recipients of the 2018 Thouron Award. The Thouron Award is awarded to seniors at the University to pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom and is eligible for tuition and stipends for up to two years while earning a graduate degree.

Ryan was a three-year letterwinner with the sprint football program. In the backfield, he tallied 218 yards on 50 carries with one touchdown and added an additional 40 yards on two receptions.

On top of his participation with the sprint football program, Leone has been enrolled in the Roy and Diana Vagelos Dual-Degree program in Life Sciences and Management. He will graduate this spring with a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School of Business as well as a B.A. from the College of Arts & Sciences.

With this award, Ryan be seeking his master's degree in War and Psychiatry at King's College in London, "I chose Kings because it is the only program of its kind in the world," said Leone, "It seemed most fitting to my particular career interests."

Ryan's career interests? To be a physician and commander in the US Military's medical department.

"This would include looking at PTSD, ways in which we treat it, and how we can better treat and research it," Ryan explained, "That is, looking at ways in which physical injuries [veterans] face and the mental ones can be resolved together."

Ryan's experience with the sprint football team has given him a plethora of experience in collaboration – which will be vital in researching such a widespread epidemic – but has also provided him with some of the connections necessary in receiving the scholarship.

"One thing I think is pretty interesting was, one of the guys at my interview said, 'Oh I played sprint football for a season, 48 years ago,' and I told him 'Oh so you had Wags!'"

Leone was referring to Coach Bill Wagner, who will be entering his 50^th year as the head coach of the sprint football program this fall.

"Wags is the glue that ties together all of these generations of alumni," said Leone.

Though Ryan's time as a sprint football player has concluded, he will certainly leave his mark on the program. In 2017 Leone became the team's inaugural academic coordinator, where he served as an access point to inform teammates of on-campus resources, extracurricular groups, and assigned mentors within the team to underclassmen.

Leone is in the process of working with people across the athletic department with Dr. Grace Calhoun to assign a student-athlete with a similar position to all varsity teams at Penn. Long after his last snap, as is the case with many sprint football alumni, he will have left a profound impact on the program as well as the entire Penn athletics department.