Two-time Olympian and WNE alumnus Rodney Smith ’89, G’03 was the special guest of the Cohen Scholars Chautauqua recently, where he regaled the six business students with motivational anecdotes from his life and career at their bimonthly breakfast meeting on professional development.
Smith, a bronze medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and a member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team in Atlanta, served nine years in the U.S. Army while training in the military’s World Class Athletes Program. He earned numerous accolades along the way, including being named 1992 U.S. Armed Forces Athlete-of-the-Year. Junior Cameron Coe said it was “an honor to meet and be inspired by him,” as he had never met an Olympian before.
The Cohen Scholars Program was established by a bequest from the Estate of Frances Cohen, whose husband Norman Cohen was a 1934 graduate of Western New England University.
