Impact of a Scholarship: Olga and Nataylia Bredikhina

Nataliya and Olga Bredikhina arrived in America without anyone but each other. 

After spending the entirety of their childhood in Russia, the pair of identical twins uprooted their lives to play collegiate tennis in America, earning full scholarships to attend the University of Maryland. By strokes of companionship and grit, the twins eventually parlayed their opportunities into two successful post-tennis careers, one in economics and the other in sports management. First, though, they needed somewhere that would bet on both of them — that place was the University of Maryland.

When the twins arrived in the DMV, they spoke little English and knew almost nothing of the culture, undertaking an undeniably intimidating experience. In large part, they created their destiny, declining offers that split them apart or didn’t recognize their potential. Another university had offered a scholarship to just one of them, and they declined. In typical twin fashion, the twins won’t reveal which one.

“Throughout college, having your sister around you when you’re in a different country was huge,” Nataliya said. “Being apart from Russia all alone as a young woman in the U.S. would have been very, very hard. Having my sister by my side was huge.”

It turns out Maryland made the right bet — the dual scholarships transformed their futures. Both twins have begun distinguished professional careers, with Nataliya thriving in the sports management industry and currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Business Administration at Temple University as a Presidential Fellow, while Olga earns opportunity after opportunity thanks to her background in economics. 

They both cite Maryland’s education as the springboard that launched their careers. Yet, even as their destinies drift in alternate directions, arriving at Maryland together with full scholarships changed their lives for the better. 

Before the twins were making waves in the professional world, Nataliya and Olga had to work their way through a new country and a new campus. They were, of course, happy to have each other, though they thought it would take a long time to adjust. Maryland expedited more than just their athletic and professional lives — the university accommodated them and other international athletes and treated them like family.

“Maryland was really friendly and accommodating for international student-athletes,” Olga said. “When you come and you get to continue playing your sport that always makes it feel like home. And when the athletic department is so attentive to what you need, when academic advisors are always available — it lessens the burden when everyone wants you to succeed. It’s something that makes a big difference.”

Once they arrived on campus, they quickly fell for the team culture. The environment immediately gave them a built-in family, and the support of the athletic department quickly amplified their immediately evident drive and intelligence.

Even off the tennis court, their drive caught the school’s attention. Olga obtained her first internship through Maryland’s athletic department, a position in the university's business office which became a valuable experience for her budding economic career. The twins humbly attributed the turning points in their academic careers to those who helped them in the athletic department.

“At that time, I didn't have any internship experiences," Olga said. "It would have been hard to navigate this process of a job search. But it was a really positive experience.”

It helped her down the road as well.

“Maryland is in such a great location, so it was fun to participate in different events on campus and it was awesome to be near D.C.,” Olga said. “That helped to get my internship right after I got done with undergrad, and also D.C. is just a beautiful city with a lot of historical and cultural sites so it was just a fun place to be.”

Of course, Olga and Nataliya were killing it on the court as well.

Some of their favorite memories came during their first years on campus, including being part of a freshman-dominated team that defeated the Duke Blue Devils, a highly-ranked, heavily-favored collegiate rival. By their junior years, they were well acclimated off the court and found more than enough success on it. Nataliya notched multiple wins at major tournaments, while Olga notched the best record of her career at 20-12.

"When we got the opportunity to combine athletics and academics on a very high level, we didn't take it for granted," Nataliya said. "You really value how well everything is organized."

Their success in the classroom was even more impressive. Though it took both twins time to discover their majors, the process helped initiate their careers. Nataliya, for one, said her scholarship freed up her financial burden and propelled her toward a career she would ultimately fall in love with. She designed her major at Maryland, which became “Sport & Society,” and complimented her double-major with French.

“Some people come to a university and they start thinking, 'What is the profession that will give me a lot of money and help me secure a job right after I graduate?'" Nataliya said. "That is a very practical and important approach — I think it helps you if you’ve determined your major when you get to college but I wasn’t exactly like that. I was more like, 'What is interesting to me? What do I want to study?' As a student-athlete you spend so much time on the court, you're already full-time, so when you come home you want to pick up a book and read something interesting to you.”

It is hard to overstate how much their scholarships changed their trajectory for the better.

“Oh absolutely, I wouldn't be in this country right now if it wasn't for the scholarship,” Nataliya said. “Education in the U.S., especially for foreigners, can be so expensive, but Maryland made everything possible for us.”

“The scholarship gave a chance like this to my sister and me and we wouldn't be in this country without it,” she added. “It just opened doors to so many opportunities. Even just being a student-athlete, that is something I used as leverage when I applied to the Master's program. My program focused on sports management, and they appreciated that I had the real-life perspective.”

After graduating from Maryland in 2016, Nataliya obtained her Master's degree at the University of Central Florida and worked as a research assistant at The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. She also interned at the Golf Channel and ATP Tour and has held down respected jobs and internships at every turn.

Beyond Nataliya’s love for her budding career, her work is invaluable to the people she knows best — athletes. Her research attempts to intersect the interests she picked up at Maryland — diversity in athletic departments and front offices, marketing, and branding athletes, and the sports industry at the professional level. Nataliya’s goal is to get on a tenure track as an assistant professor, combining her interests in researching and teaching. Further down the road, she’s even considering having her own consulting practice where she works with athletes.

Olga has parlayed her degree and 3.97 GPA into a research economist position at the University of Alabama and the Alabama Transportation Institute. She leads and supports research initiatives on various transportation-related topics such as public safety, innovation, economic impact analysis for infrastructure projects. Her future looks bright — for now, she’s focused on her work and obtaining her second Master’s degree. And she is grateful it all started at Maryland.

“The scholarships made it possible for us to come to the U.S. and get an undergraduate education. That became a stepping stone for everything we’ve done after that,” Olga said. “The quality of education at Maryland and the reputation really set us up for the next steps.”

Undertaking the journey together mattered immensely for the twins. Their journey did not come without hardship — after all, it takes determination and support to obtain high honors, hold multiple internships and succeed on the court. It’s even more challenging when you’re halfway across the world. But Maryland supported them every step of the way, and the twins worked beyond belief to make sure their own futures were bright.

“I don’t know what would have happened if Maryland said, ‘We only have space for one,’” Olga said. “But it was really great they offered it to both of us. It worked out.”