Walter Rouse ’19, now a Stanford senior, is a finalist for the Campbell Trophy.

Sidwell Friends’ own Walter Rouse ’19, a Stanford senior and the starting left tackle this season for the Stanford Cardinals, is a finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy. The Campbell Trophy annually recognizes the best football scholar-athlete in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance, and leadership.

The National Football Foundation recently named Rouse as one of 15 finalists out of a pool of 156 semifinalists. As a finalist, Rouse will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship. This year’s winner of the Campbell Trophy, the 33rd to be awarded, will be announced on December 6 in Las Vegas. Rouse is Stanford’s 15th all-time finalist for the award, including its second straight and third in four years.

According to a Stanford announcement, Rouse—who was a highly recruited player coming of out Sidwell Friends—holds a 3.52 GPA in biomechanical engineering and has received numerous honors for his performance on and off the field. He is a member of the Stanford Football Leadership Council and an Eagle Scout, and he has interned with the Stanford Archeology Center and the cardiothoracic department of Stanford University Medical Center. He participated in a “Meet the Makers” event on campus, where he designed, fabricated, welded, and painted a deadlift bar holder for the Stanford weight room. Rouse speaks regularly about the importance of education, football, and life’s priorities at the Emery Heights Community Center, and he serves as a mentor for a local high school athlete. He has also coached at football clinics and youth football camps, participated in Stanford’s Team IMPACT program, and read to students during Civic Engagement Day.

Candidates for the Campbell Trophy, who are nominated by their schools, must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of playing eligibility, have a GPA of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, have displayed outstanding football ability as a first team player or significant contributor, and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship.

The trophy is named in honor of the late Bill Campbell, an All-Ivy League player and the captain of Columbia’s 1961 Ivy League championship team. After coaching Columbia’s football team for five years in the late 1970s, Campbell entered the advertising profession and, later, became a pioneering Silicon Valley technology executive and mentor to some of the country’s best-known technology luminaries.