The NCHC announced this morning that Gabe Levin, senior center and assistant captain for the University of Denver hockey team, is the inaugural recipient of the conference’s post-graduate scholarship. Entering the 2015-16 season, the conference announced several new on- and off-ice policy changes. Among them was the creation of the post-graduate scholarship program.

The finance major with a Business Ethics & Legal Studies (BELS) minor boasts a 3.96 GPA at the Daniels College of Business (DCB). This is no small feat as DCB is well-known for its development of business professionals and the finance department has a reputation for its great rigor.

Back in December, while the hockey team was in Grand Forks to play North Dakota, Levin decided to forego playing in game one of the weekend series to get enough sleep to excel when he took the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) the next day. In doing so, he snapped his streak of playing in 129 straight games for the Pioneers. The decision was good one, as it turns out. His score landed him in the 99th percentile nationwide.

“Gabe is the embodiment of what a student-athlete should be,” DU head coach Jim Montgomery said in the NCHC’s press release. “He excels at everything he does and it’s been a privilege to coach him these last three years. He’s a great ambassador not just for Denver Hockey but for college hockey as a whole.”

Levin has had a penchant for racking up the academic awards during his time at DU. Since he arrived at University and Evans, he was awarded the Chancellor Scholarship (highest level of merit-based academic awards DU offers), he’s a 3x winner of DU’s male scholar-athlete of the year, two time member of the NCHC scholar athlete team of the year, a three time all conference academic all-conference honoree, and he is one of the two finalists for this year’s scholar-athlete of the year.

“Graduate School is a huge opportunity for me to pursue a passion that I developed while studying at the University of Denver. At Denver, I have taken a variety of Legal Studies courses, which made me realize I wanted to pursue a career in law,” Levin said. “After making this decision, I knew that law school was the only way for me to achieve this goal. For the past year, the time I have not spent on school and hockey has been dedicated to studying for the LSAT and working on my applications. I am very excited about the career opportunities that I will encounter in graduate school.”

Levin’s scholarship award, funded by the El Pomar Foundation in Colorado Springs, will be $7,500. While that won’t pay for law school by any means, any amount will surely help. Of course, with the incredible academic resume Levin boasts, he very well could earn even more scholarship money from other sources.

He still hasn’t settled on a law school yet, but one thing is for certain: wherever he ends up going, that school will be lucky to have him.

Gabe, LetsGoDU would like to offer you our sincerest congratulations and best of luck going forward. We know the season isn’t over yet, but this is so much bigger than anything that happens on the ice and we’re so glad to be fellow Pioneers.

Now, go help bring home #8!