Senior Abby Williams (Canton, OH/Jackson) of the Wooster women's tennis team was recently announced as the winner of the 2026 ITA Sally Ride STEM Award.
 
Four finalists were selected after an extensive application process across the entire collegiate scene. Williams joined three others – Alisha Chulani (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps), Ainika Hou (Carnegie Mellon University) and Abigail Moss (Georgetown College) – before she was announced as the winner of the prize.
 
The award honors an American history icon, Dr. Sally Ride, who played tennis at Stanford before joining NASA and becoming the first woman to go to space.
 
The ITA Sally Ride STEM Award serves as a symbol of the ability of women to shatter barriers both on and off the court, being awarded to a female student-athlete who demonstrates zeal, dedication, and perseverance towards her tennis training and competition, STEM studies, and long-term goals.

Williams will receive a grant of $8,000 endowed by Tam O'Shaugnessy, life partner of Ride, to assist a female college tennis player who plans to pursue graduate studies in a STEM field. 

Additionally, the ITA will donate $2,000 to Wooster's women's tennis program.

Williams won 20 matches between singles and doubles this season, including eight in the No. 2 singles flight. 
 
The biochemistry and molecular biology major spent last summer as an intern with the summer undergraduate internship program at the University of Pennsylvania, where Williams will return to pursue a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology with a concentration in microbiology, virology, and parasitology. 
 
On campus, Williams was a research assistant and worked as a STEM Zone Intern for biology and chemistry. The senior was also a teaching assistant for a chemistry course.