BETHLEHEM, Pa. – A pair of Patriot League basketball graduates, Colgate’s Zach Mild and Lafayette’s Naomi Ganpo-Nkwenkwa, have been awarded the Victory Scholarship by way of the Sport Modifications Life Basis (SCLF).
Mild and Ganpo-Nkwenkwa change into the twenty fourth and twenty fifth Patriot League student-athletes to obtain the scholarship that enables them to proceed their research and play basketball at one of many prestigious universities in Eire or Northern Eire through the 2022-23 educational 12 months.
Mild will head to Cork, Eire the place he’ll attend Munster Technological College. Ganpo-Nkwenkwa will attend South East Technological School in Carlow, Eire.
The Victory Scholarship, awarded by the Sport Modifications Life Basis, offers student-athletes the chance to proceed their athletic and educational careers by taking part in on a membership group and finding out in a graduate program at a college in Eire or Northern Eire. As a Victory Scholar, the student-athletes may also work within the wider neighborhood with younger folks gaining useful life experiences that may assist them develop on a private {and professional} stage. The Patriot League has partnered with the Victory Scholar Program since 2008.
“We’re thrilled to welcome two extra Patriot League Victory Students to Eire,” says Gareth Maguire CEO of Sport Modifications Life. “Zach and Naomi are two of our high alternatives this 12 months and we’re assured that they may flourish of their placements. Zach, a championship winner from Colgate College, will research for a grasp’s in Worldwide Finance on the College of Galway. He’ll play basketball with the College of Galway Maree, which performs within the Males’s Superleague. Naomi, a biology main from Lafayette School, will be a part of Zach and research for a grasp’s in Human Useful resource Administration. She’s going to play with the College of Galway Mystics, who’re newly promoted to the highest flight Irish Ladies’s Superleague. Most significantly Zach and Naomi will work as inspirational position fashions whereas teaching and mentoring younger folks in Galway. We’re assured that Zach and Naomi will shine within the classroom, on the ground, and locally and we’re excited for them to have a life-changing expertise and get began making a distinction in younger folks’s lives.”
The Patriot League entered right into a partnership with the Sport Modifications Life Basis in December of 2009 to facilitate alternatives for student-athletes to safe a Graduate Improvement Worldwide Scholarship.
2022-23 Patriot League Victory Scholarship Recipients
Naomi Ganpo-Nkwenkwa | Lafayette Ladies’s Basketball | Bachelor of Science in Biology (’22)
* Ganpo-Nkwenkwa averaged 7.2 factors per sport and completed ninth within the Patriot League in rebounding (8.0) and first in blocked pictures (2.2).
* Ganpo-Nkwenkwa based Cocoa Talks and was a number one member of Expensive Lafayette School, each organizations centered on empowering the minority neighborhood attending Lafayette School.
* She was an affiliate member of Tri-Beta, an honor society for undergraduates devoted to bettering the understanding and appreciation of organic research.
Ganpo-Nkwenkwa on the chance…
“This chance means the world to me, this 12 months will function my hole 12 months, and I plan on benefiting from it! It is a huge threat that I’ve taken, transferring to a different nation even farther from dwelling. So, I plan on taking the very best benefit of this chance, particularly as a result of the truth that it’s all lined and paid for. I do not know what extra I may have requested for a niche 12 months. What I hope for myself is to develop as a person, and be taught as a lot as I can from the Irish neighborhood, which is what comes whenever you transfer to a different area. Having performed so earlier than, once I transitioned from Canada to america, I do know that my experiences can be fantastic. When it comes to Basketball. I began practices final week, and though there have been a variety of shifts in fashion of play and practices in comparison with what I’m used to, I’m so blissful to have a supportive group to assist me regulate to the transition, and I additionally assume that we now have a gifted group able to carrying out loads. General, despite the fact that I’m miles away from dwelling, understanding that I’ve all this assist, and still have household in proximity international locations round Europe, have all made me really feel extra assured that my time right here can be profitable.”
Zach Mild | Colgate Males’s Basketball | Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Authorities (’22)
* Mild performed in 16 video games for the Patriot League Champion Raiders throughout his senior season. He made one begin, towards Navy.
* Mild was awarded the Males’s Basketball’s Jack Mitchell Educational Excellence Award for the 2021-2022 educational 12 months and earned the Males’s Basketball Hasan Brown Spirit Award for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 educational years.
* He additionally earned Honors Courtroom distinction from the Nationwide Affiliation of Basketball Coaches (NABC) for his cumulative GPA of three.33.
Mild on the chance…
“I’m extraordinarily grateful to be chosen as an envoy for the Victory Scholar Program of the Sport Modifications Life Basis. I’ve been in Eire for about two weeks now, and the expertise to this point has been unbelievable. Whereas I’m nonetheless getting used to my new surroundings, I really feel as if I’m adjusting rapidly. I’ve the Sport Modifications Life founders, fellow Victory Students, and membership teammates to thank for that. At first, it appeared daunting attempting to acclimate to a brand new life-style, however I’m grateful to have such useful teammates (each in this system in addition to Galway) which might be keen to make my transition as clean as attainable. My expectations for the 12 months align completely with the mission statements of Sport Modifications Life in addition to my former faculty, Colgate College. I hope to depart a long-lasting affect within the classroom, on the courtroom, and, locally. Whereas lessons and basketball have already began, I stay up for partaking with and provoking these locally to appreciate the vital life values that one can expertise by way of taking part in sports activities. As for what this chance means to me, I consider that serving to kids and adolescents of their private improvement is in the end the higher aim, and being part of a group that values this aim is one thing that I take nice delight in. I’m looking forward to the longer term alternatives that await and I can not wait to get to work!”
Previous Patriot League Victory Scholarship Members
Males’s Basketball (8)
Matt Betley, Lafayette (2008-09)
Paul Cummins, Lafayette (2009-10)
Darryl Shazier, Bucknell (2011-12)
Jim Mower, Lafayette (2012-13)
Jared Mintz, Lafayette (2013-14)
Cory Starkey, Bucknell (2015-16)
Tom Rivard, Colgate (2018-19)
Zach Mild, Colgate (2022-23)
Ladies’s Basketball (16)
Sarah McGorry, Lafayette (2012-2013)
Christine Ganser, Holy Cross (2014-15)
Nicole Krusen, Loyola Maryland (2014-15)
Claire Sullivan, Holy Cross (2015-16)
Randyll Butler, Colgate (2016-17)
Steph Poland, Colgate (2017-18)
Madelyn Ganser, Holy Cross (2017-18)
Patricia Byrne, Holy Cross (2018-19)
Ellen Graham, Lafayette (2018-19)
Amy Hasenauer, Holy Cross (2018-19)
Summer time King, Colgate (2019-20)
Patricia Byrne, Holy Cross (2019-20)
Ellen Graham, Lafayette (2019-20)
Kaitlyn Slagus, Bucknell (2019-20)
Rachel Thompson, Colgate (2021-22)
Naomi Ganpo, Lafayette (2022-23)
Males’s Soccer (1)
Ryan Sappington, Bucknell (2012-2013)
ABOUT SPORT CHANGES LIFE
Sport Modifications Life presents American corporations, educational and sporting organizations and people a novel alternative to become involved in a Graduate Improvement Worldwide Scholarship bundle. They help in getting the easiest college students a scholarship bundle to review at masters’ stage in Irish universities. Corporations and people are invited to spend money on these scholarships. These graduates would be the future leaders of corporations all through america and can have gained useful worldwide life experiences which can give them a globalized perspective essential for transatlantic enterprise improvement. The Sports activities Modifications Life Basis is a not-for-profit group.
ABOUT THE PATRIOT LEAGUE
The Patriot League is in its fourth decade of educational and athletic achievement, regularly demonstrating that student-athlete can excel at each teachers and athletics with out sacrificing excessive requirements. The Patriot League’s athletic success is achieved whereas its member establishments stay dedicated to its founding precept of admitting and graduating student-athletes which might be academically consultant of their class. Participation in athletics at Patriot League establishments is seen as an vital part of a well-rounded schooling.
