Opening Doors - University of Rhode Island

Opening Doors and Setting New Records
ANNUAL REPORT FY 2009
Opening Doors
[a student’s story]
Oliver Palmer ‘10
Oliver Palmer’s career at URI is a story of prowess, both on the
baseball field and in the classroom. Captain of the URI baseball team,
Palmer’s athletic career highlights include his being named a 2009 New
England Intercollegiate Baseball Association (NEIBA) Division I All-
Star. Additionally Palmer has been selected for the CoSIDA/ESPN The
Magazine Academic All District I First Team.
Not that he’ll volunteer the information. He merely confirms it when
asked. Palmer is much more interested in speaking about his team
when talking of its 2009 dream season. The Rams won 37 games last
year, defeating nationally ranked teams, and advancing to the Atlantic
10 championship game. “It
was one of the winningest
teams in URI history,”
Palmer said. “We beat a
bunch of top-ranked teams
and set records.”
Though the recipient of a
privately funded athletic
scholarship, for which he
expresses his gratitude,
Palmer’s talents extend
beyond the baseball field.
The senior maintains a
3.69 grade point average.
He routinely merits a spot
on the Atlantic 10 Commissioner’s Honor Roll and is the first Ram to
earn the Academic All-District I honor since 2005.
“My scholarship played a
role in my attending URI
and has enabled me to make
the most of my time here.”
Palmer has also been known to help others in need. In 2008, while
playing for the Quincy Gems in Quincy, Ill. Palmer and his teammates
worked placing sandbags on the banks of the Mississippi River to
prevent flooding. Also, with the Rams, Palmer is a regular volunteer for
Walk Now for Autism Southern New England, an annual event. Palmer
approaches volunteering with the nonchalance one might reserve for a
neighborhood pickup game.
“We do the little things we can do,” he says.
Palmer intends to pursue a career in the video-editing field, perhaps
working for a professional team or in a college’s- or university’s sports
communications office.
An intern in URI’s sports communications office, Palmer says he enjoys
working behind the scenes, setting up streaming videos of URI’s men’sand
women’s soccer- and volleyball games.
He also is considering pursuing a graduate degree. Palmer will graduate
with a business minor, a course of study the senior undertook, he says,
in response to an uncertain, and, as of late, volatile local- and national
economic forecast.
No doubt Palmer will ably weather the storm.
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