James Bayer Memorial Scholarship Award nominee: Samantha Sweet, UPEI women's hockey

Position: Forward
Height: 5'6"
Hometown: O'Leary, P.E.I.
Year of eligibility: Fifth
Academic Program: Masters of Chemistry 

Fifth-year women's hockey forward Samantha Sweet is the UPEI Panthers nominee for the 2016 James Bayer Memorial Scholarship Award.

The Panthers team captain played in all 24 games this season, scoring four goals and adding three assists. Last season, Sweet was named her team's most valuable player.

Currently completing her masters in chemistry, she is a four-time CIS academic All Canadian, on pace to earning the honour for a fifth consecutive year in her final season.

Along with her efforts on the ice, Sweet is actively involved in the community. She has been the lead instructor for Hockey PEI's New to Canada Skills Camp for the past four years.

She has served as a lead volunteer and organizer of UPEI's Pink in the Rink event for the last five years and hosted six different food drive events with her team.

Sweet is also involved with the CMHA Spud Challenge, TD Canada Trust's Tree Day tree planting program, the Paderno Challenge Cup which raises money for breast cancer research and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

"Sam consistently demonstrates her amazing leadership skills," said Panthers women's hockey head coach Bruce Donaldson. "Over the past five years Sam has been very involved in our schools community engagement programs. Her ability to connect to the participants, especially the youth of PEI, has been exceptional."