Impact Of A Scholarship: Noella Anyangwe
Nick Albicocco, Maryland Media Relations
1/7/2021
As Noella Anyangwe developed into a track and field star at Clarksburg High School in Maryland, she began to prepare for a recruitment process that would give her the opportunity to further her athletic career while on scholarship.
Yet, the first-generation Cameroonian-American never ended up receiving the highly-anticipated recruitment process as she fractured the patella in her knee as a junior in October of 2010, a devastating injury for any athlete. But she stayed motivated and driven leading her to a successful career on and off the track at the University of Maryland.
Fortunately for Anyangwe, her 4.1 GPA in high school and a third-place finish in the 300-meter hurdles event at the 2012 4A Maryland State Championships convinced Head Coach Andrew Valmon to give her the opportunity to walk on to the Maryland track and field team.
While Anyangwe wasn’t initially offered a scholarship, she praised Coach Valmon and fellow assistant coaches, along with her teammates, for not treating her any differently when she enrolled at Maryland in the Fall of 2012.
“Despite not being a scholarship athlete, I felt like they still cared about my well-being and were generally caring from the beginning of day one, making sure that I was settled in my on-campus housing,” Anyangwe said.
“Once I met the team, it’s like you’ve known them your whole life and so it was really just a warm welcome and that was the entire Maryland Athletics environment. I felt very at home.”
The day that I was granted a full scholarship, it was a very emotional day for me because I knew all the hard work that I put in to get there.Noella Anyangwe
Once I did get that scholarship, the financial weight was lifted and I felt free to live the student-athlete life, in terms of taking the extra time to study or not having to worry about babysitting on the weekend.
With the fractured patella injury keeping her off the track for an extended period of time, Anyangwe said that she had to essentially “re-learn pretty much everything” that she had been taught about how to excel on the track.
“When I came to Maryland, Coach Valmon literally built me as an athlete from the ground up,” Anyangwe said.
Anyangwe continued to heap praise upon Valmon, crediting him with helping her improve over her four-year collegiate career despite the fact that she also dealt with a cortical defect in her knee, a heel contusion, and an arm injury after falling in a hurdles event.
“Under the coaching of Coach Valmon, I was able to not only drop my speed but just grow as an athlete as a relay team member or as an individual hurdler,” she said.
Anyangwe also acknowledged that she grew not just as an athlete, but also as a teammate and a person.
“Maybe I didn’t win Big Ten Championship individual honors, but winning on my own personal platform -- improving my times and growing faster -- and being a consistent person on the team to know that when it comes to major meets, I'm going to score points for the team,” she said.
While her coaches certainly helped her grow as a student-athlete, Anyangwe credited another group of people for allowing her to excel on-and-off the track at Maryland; the donors who helped pay for the scholarship that she eventually earned.
“The day that I was granted a full scholarship, it was a very emotional day for me because I knew all the hard work that I put in to get there,” Anyangwe said.
By having a scholarship, Anyangwe felt that she could fully take advantage of the opportunities available to her as a student-athlete without having to worry about being burdened financially.
“Once I did get that scholarship, the financial weight was lifted and I felt free to live the student-athlete life, in terms of taking the extra time to study or not having to worry about babysitting on the weekend,” Anyangwe said.
In addition, Anyangwe indirectly became more familiar with the concept of financial literacy through the benefits of her scholarship.
“I was able to save up as well so that once I departed from college, I had a very good cushioning because my scholarship not only paid for my education but also it pays for my housing as well and gives you an allowance for food and then you can budget it as you please and so I learned financial literacy through my scholarship,” she added.
Anyangwe also believes the scholarship allowed her to be an advocate for the sport of track and field and the student-athletes of the University of Maryland.
“I was able to work Terrapin Club events and intermix with donors and just kind of be an ambassador of the sport,” Anyangwe said.
“Yes, we are student-athletes, but we are primarily students so my scholarship wasn't just about track, it was more about what I could bring to the sport in terms of awareness, visibility, and being a good ambassador for the sport.”
Between being a track student-athlete and a physiology and neurobiology major at the University of Maryland, Anyangwe had a lot on her plate.
With her scholarship, she was able to meet people who gave her access to laboratories and resources that other students may not have had the opportunity to receive.
“As a research student, I was able to not only go into labs and understand what I was being taught in terms of neurological information, but I was also able to learn the intricacies of kinesiology and sport as well and I was able to go into these labs that people didn’t have access to if they didn’t know the right people,” Anyangwe said.
Anyangwe was also able to use these connections that she developed through her scholarship to shadow and work with certain doctors.
“I was able to intern with the InTERPship Academy and I was able to be a clinical shadow. Our medical department at the time was headed by Dr. Craig Bennett and, for two consecutive summers, I was able to intern for him in the operating room and observe a plethora of surgeries,” Anyangwe said.
Anyangwe also worked with Dr. Yvette Rooks, Maryland’s Head Team Physician and Assistant Director in the University Health Center, as an intern on a clinical basis, where she assisted in conducting physicals for new football athletes.
“Ultimately, I was able to do a lot of things because my coaches know a lot of people and would say they knew someone who’s amazing on-the-track and off-the-track and, next thing I know, I’m in an eight-week program going to research labs and learning about ACL repairs,” Anyangwe said.
There’s nothing in this world that I can say but thank you and I hope that one day I will be able to be in their position to give back, so they can know that what they started or what they’re doing is a legacy.Noella Anyangwe
What Maryland gives to each student-athlete is impactful. Each one will grow up and be able to give back to the next one. I'm appreciative of all they’ve done and I look forward to fulfilling their legacy.
Anyangwe is currently in the process of applying to medical school and just received her master's degree from the University of Southern California.
When asked what her dream job would be upon the completion of medical school, she doesn’t hesitate, saying, “I would love to have a career like Dr. Bennett.”
“I want to be someone who is not only an orthopedic surgeon but innovative in sports medicine, working with student-athletes every day trying to get back in the collegiate atmosphere,” she said. “It's a very big plate I’d like to serve but I think it’s doable.”
Whether Anyangwe is ultimately able to become the next Dr. Bennett remains to be seen, but she recognizes that she never would’ve had the opportunity to even try if it weren’t for the donors who paid for her scholarship at the University of Maryland.
“There’s nothing in this world that I can say but thank you and I hope that one day I will be able to be in their position to give back, so they can know that what they started or what they’re doing is a legacy,” Anyangwe said.
“What Maryland gives to each student-athlete is impactful. Each one will grow up and be able to give back to the next one. I'm appreciative of all they’ve done and I look forward to fulfilling their legacy.”
