Impact Of A Scholarship: Widner Saint-Cyr

Widner Saint-Cyr did not have a traditional path to becoming a Terp, but nonetheless his dreams were fulfilled in College Park.

The former midfielder on the Maryland men’s soccer team was born and raised in Port Au Prince, Haiti, before he came to the United States to live with his uncle in Rockland County, New York. 

“To be honest, Haitian culture is different from American culture,” Saint-Cyr said. “It doesn’t matter how old you are, your parents are still trying to protect you and there are certain things you cannot do.”

Before coming Maryland, Saint-Cyr played on the Haiti U17 National Team that played in the 2007 World Cup in South Korea, which he calls the highlight of his career.

“That was a great experience being able to represent my country at a very young age,” he said. “If you’re playing soccer at whatever level, if there is a World Cup, you want to play in that World Cup because that’s when you’re seen by the world and that was something I worked hard for.”

Moving to an entirely new continent to live with his uncle, to then moving hours away from his uncle to College Park resulted in Saint-Cyr sometimes feeling alone.

But, he was able to find the positives in being alone and he quickly found himself in a brotherhood of a soccer program.

“I’m glad I had that experience because it shaped me in a way where I can actually make certain decisions without thinking about it twice because I trusted myself,” Saint-Cyr said. “Living on campus actually helped me become that person.”

He played midfield for five seasons at Maryland from 2009 to 2013, redshirting his true sophomore season, but he was able to cherish each year in College Park to better himself as a person.

Saint-Cyr lived through plenty of fond memories at Maryland, like winning the Atlantic Coast Conference title three times and beating Duke in College Park, but to him nothing will beat having a brotherhood since the second he got on campus.

“It’s the brotherhood that you get on campus, on and off the field,” Saint-Cyr said. “You hang out with everybody, not just the soccer team. The student-athlete community formed a brotherhood that actually sticks together for life.”

For someone who left his family to pursue an education and athletic career in America, he was able to find his own “family” in college.

Saint-Cyr said he still stays in touch with his fellow student-athletes from Maryland. He is in text group chats with guys from football, track and field and basketball, to name a few, and they talk in it pretty much everyday.

“This is the type of friendship and brotherhood that you create when you’re on campus,” he said. “These are the things I will forever live for.”

Saint-Cyr had plenty of success on the soccer pitch too. His time at Maryland opened up plenty of opportunities with not only relationships, but athletics and jobs too.

He graduated from Maryland in 2013 and played one season in 2014 for Arizona United, which is now the Phoenix Rising FC, a professional soccer team in the United Soccer League. Saint-Cyr made 12 appearances for the club in his lone season in Phoenix.

Now, Saint-Cyr, who was the recipient of a 2020 M Club Rodman Postgraduate Scholarship, is in his second year of law school and he works at a family law firm in Missouri.

“My connection to Maryland opened countless opportunities, starting in college and of course getting me to the pros,” he said. “Just being in the ‘DMV’ area, just saying that you’ve graduated from the University of Maryland, a lot of people are willing to give you an opportunity.”

Saint-Cyr’s first job after professional soccer actually came from a connection that he had at Maryland. After he graduated, one of the former Maryland football tutors, who he knew in college, helped him obtain his first job.

“These are the opportunities of not only being a Maryland student-athlete but a Maryland graduate,” he said.

When Saint-Cyr was applying to law school a couple of years ago, putting the University of Maryland on his resume and having schools see his transcript from his time here made him very proud.

“The University of Maryland is a university that is well respected nationwide,” Saint-Cyr said.

Being on scholarship at Maryland meant everything to him because of the opportunities it came with, but mainly for the people who helped shape his life.

“The people I was surrounded by offered me the guidance I needed, as a boy from Haiti without my parents,” Saint-Cyr said. “I did not know anybody [when I came to Maryland], so if it weren’t for my coaches, teammates, staff and the scholarship, I don’t know how successful I would have been.”

When Saint-Cyr came to America without his parents, he thought there would be no way that he could afford a college education. The scholarship that he received, and that so many other student-athletes receive at Maryland, allowed him not only the opportunity to continue playing a sport that he loved, but to get a world-class education.

“It was my dream to be able to graduate from college and without a scholarship I don’t know how I would actually have achieved that,” he said.

Saint-Cyr is forever thankful to the donors who contributed to the scholarship that he was granted. 

“[The donors] actually helped me realize my dream as a teenager,” he said. “Their donations are what contributed the most to the person that I am today.”

Being able to graduate college meant so much to him and his family. Saint-Cyr became the first of his immediate family and close relatives to get a college degree and will be the first to obtain a law degree and become a lawyer.

Without the donors at Maryland, Saint-Cyr does not think any of that would have been possible. 

“I just want people to know that whatever it is you need to do, if you are at the University of Maryland, you will have the resources and support of the community to do it.”