The traits that make Ted Howell stand out on the baseball diamond for Illinois Tech are the same reasons he excels in the classroom, so it's not hard to understand why Howell became the Scarlet Hawks' first Division III Google Cloud Academic All-American.
“He’s really smart, and he’s a generous person,” Illinois Tech baseball coach Ed Zeifert says, adding: “He treats the guys on the team that way, as if they’re family. If they’re struggling in class, he’s there to help them. He’s a special human.”
Howell (ME/M.S. MAE 4th year) scored academic All-America honors after earning a 4.0 grade-point average during the 2018–19 academic year as an accelerated master's engineering student. All the while, he hit .295 with 28 RBIs and a team-best eight home runs during what Zeifert says was a breakout season last spring.
Beyond his academic activities—such as an Interprofessional Projects (IPRO) Program course that has him debating a career making medical devices to “do something that will have more of a practical impact and make people's lives better”—managing his time to ensure he stays successful in both arenas is no easy task when you consider that much of Howell's spring semester features him playing four baseball games each weekend.
“I work really hard at trying to do both of those things really, really well,” Howell says. “Obviously, in baseball you have the obligation not just to be the best you can be for yourself, but for everyone else. In there, I'm trying not to let the other guys down. In the classroom, I'm just trying to do the best I can because of the likelihood engineering is going to be my future. It feels validating to be recognized for both.”