SAN DIEGO – San Diego State swimmer Lizzie Menzmer was honored for her work in the classroom on Wednesday when she received a total of $2,500 in tuition assistance from the College Football Playoff (CFP) Foundation and Dr. Pepper.
Now in its third year, the Go Teach Dr. Pepper Tuition Giveaway is part of a collective six-year effort between the CFP Foundation and Dr. Pepper, awarding more than $1.5 million in tuition to student-athletes looking to become teachers. This fund is in addition to Dr. Pepper's Tuition Giveaway program and includes all 10 FBS conferences (American, ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12, SEC and Sun Belt), the University of Notre Dame and HBCUs.
Each year, up to 150 student-athletes will be awarded $2,500 in tuition, and 11 grand-prize recipients will receive an additional $10,000 tuition grant – one student per conference.
A fifth-year senior from Sacramento, California, Menzmer was one of seven student-athletes from the Mountain West Conference to receive the $2,500 tuition assistance. The league will announce its grand-prize winner at a later date.
The CFP Foundation and Dr. Pepper are dedicated to growing the Go Teach initiative to place qualified teachers in classrooms nationwide. Launched in 2018 through a pilot program at the University of Texas at Austin, the Go Teach initiative quickly expanded to a dozen schools by the end of 2019. Today, more than 15 schools are participating in the Go Teach program and identifying creative ways to help student-athletes move into the teaching profession.
Menzmer has garnered all-Mountain West accolades on 14 occasions during her illustrious collegiate career and is the defending conference champion in the 50 freestyle, as well as a member of SDSU's triumphant 200 freestyle relay and 200 medley relay teams, which helped the Scarlet and Black set a record at the 2022 MW Championships with 1,541.5 team points.
A special education major, Menzmer is a four-time Mountain West all-academic selection and scholar-athlete honoree. Her success in the classroom has helped the SDSU swim and dive program receive Scholar All-America Team recognition from the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America for the 13th consecutive semester in the spring of 2022.
Menzmer and the Aztecs will be back in action next week when they travel to the Lone Star State for the SMU Invitational, Nov. 17-19, in Dallas, Texas.