Seattle University men’s soccer alumni Joe Zavaglia ’71 and Derek Rogalsky ’10 are two of six people selected to receive various honors at the 30th Annual Seattle University Alumni Awards Celebration, to take place Saturday, April 18, starting at 6 p.m. at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle.
Zavaglia will receive the University Service Award for his continued support of the University and the athletics program, especially the men’s soccer team. As a student, he drafted a petition to add men’s soccer as a varsity sport in the late 1960s, and then he recruited 100 potential players. As an alumnus, Zavaglia co-chaired the Championship Field redevelopment project with Vince Volpe. For several years Zavaglia has served on the Athletics Hall of Fame committee and, in 2007, was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame. A tireless fundraiser, he helped launch the annual Red Tie event and chaired the Men’s Soccer Alumni Committee. He has also served on the Board of Regents for seven years.
Rogalsky is the recipient of the Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award for embodying the Jesuit values of service and social justice. As a student, he was inducted into Seattle U’s Ignatian Leadership Honor Society, served as president of the Bannan Scholars, volunteered in Haiti and played on the men’s soccer team, all while maintaining a 3.9 GPA. After graduation, he deferred medical school for a year to volunteer with his wife, Rebekah, also an SU alum, for a year of service in Haiti, teaching, mentoring and coaching at Louverture Cleary School. While there, Rogalsky helped coordinate The Haitian Project’s institutional response to the cholera epidemic, keeping the campus free of infection. Currently in his fourth year at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, Rogalsky was one of 21 fourth year medical students nationwide to receive the American Medical Association Physicians of Tomorrow Award. His research on health care inequality has been published in a number of scientific journals. Rogalsky decided to become a surgeon, “…to help people in their most desperate hour of need.”
For more details on all of the 2015 Alumni Awards recipients, go to http://www.seattleu.edu/alumni/community/Alumni-Awards/. To register for or to host a table at the Seattle University Alumni Awards Celebration, visit this website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/seattle-university-30th-annual-alumni-awards-tickets-14761761827.