Impact Of A Scholarship: Essence Townsend

The sport of basketball can be an escape route for many young people, and it can also help shape the path for the rest of a player’s life.

For former Maryland women’s basketball center Essence Townsend it acted as both.

Townsend grew up in troubled Paterson, New Jersey, and attended Paterson Catholic for high school, which is less than four hours from College Park. She did not even consider playing Division I basketball until later on in high school. 

“[Paterson] is not one of the best places to be in for a lot of reasons,” Townsend said. “Having a scholarship to Maryland was extremely helpful for me to get out of my own environment and see what else was out there.”

Townsend had a very tough upbringing. Her mother had to give up Townsend and her four brothers when Essence was just 3-years-old, forcing them to be separated. Six years later, her mother passed away and she was then raised by her great aunt until she too passed away when Townsend was 17. 

“My upbringing was pretty rough,” she said. “I had a lot of childhood trauma, unfortunately, and I have been through a lot of things … but I think I have done okay for myself with all that I endured.”

A prep scholarship allowed her to attend Paterson Catholic and Division I basketball scholarship offers came in late in her high school career from Pittsburgh, Delaware State, Rutgers, Seton Hall, and Maryland.

“I am extremely fortunate for the opportunity to have had a full scholarship [at Maryland],” Townsend said. “I am 31-years-old and I don’t have any student loans. I had an amazing experience, I went to the Final Four, so I’ve got to see so many amazing things, especially for a girl from my background that is not something that is very common.”

Maryland helped Townsend escape her troubled upbringing and allowed her to get a great education and play basketball for one of the national powerhouses. She played for head coach Brenda Frese for five seasons –– albeit she missed the 2012-13 season with a torn left ACL –– from 2009-2014 and went to the Final Four in her redshirt senior season in 2013-14.

The 6-foot-7 center appeared in 67 games in her Maryland career and graduated from Maryland with a degree in family science in May 2013.

“We consider Essence one of our greatest success stories,” said Frese when Townsend was still in college. “We were thrilled when she came back for her fifth season. She has really matured and found herself in college. I can’t wait to see what she does in life.”

Frese had a lasting impact on Townsend and she always had an idea that Townsend would go on to do great things in her life and Maryland helped catapult that.

“She has a big impact on me,” Townsend said. “She would call people out on their craft and hold them accountable for the things that they’re doing wrong and push us to be better people, not just better athletes. That’s definitely one thing that stuck with myself is that she did push me to be a better person and looked outside of my trauma and just know that there’s more to life than what I had gone through.” 

During college, Townsend had an internship where she worked with kids in the College Park area who were wheelchair-bound or had other developmental issues.

“It was an amazing opportunity and Maryland helped put me in contact with a lot of important people,” Townsend said.

Fast forward years later and Townsend is still helping people with disabilities. Townsend is a Behavioral Health Technician at Brighter Journeys, based in Orlando, where she works and helps children with autism. Prior to this position, she was a Behavior Therapist and a Clinical Interventionist in Phoenix.

“It was something that I have always done since I was a child,” she said. “Since a very young age I have always been learning how to take care of people and learn how to cater to people who are different. It’s something I’ve always done and when I moved to Arizona, I wanted to do something in that field and then I have now just been furthering my career.”

All of Townsend’s opportunities circle back to her scholarship to play basketball at Maryland and her ability to benefit by escaping her tough childhood and with internships and other career-impacting opportunities along the way.

“I would say thank you [to the donors] so much for the opportunity,” Townsend stated. “There’s many little girls like me from Paterson, New Jersey, and all over the world that are extremely fortunate to have people like them believe in them … People like myself are extremely grateful for the things that they are donating and also for taking the time out of their busy lives to come support us.”