-
Search Results Banner Image
WNBA Star and Gold Medal Olympian Shares Her Story of Triumph with Our Students
Perseverance. Understanding of self. Purpose. These are all components of good character. Severn’s 2018 Astle Speaker Elena Delle Donne spoke about how these qualities helped her overcome personal and professional obstacles to become the world-renowned athlete and advocate for social good she is today. In a casual Q&A session with Head of School Doug Lagarde, Ms. Delle Donne shared her story with humility and kindness, encouraging our students to be true to themselves, never give up, and give back to those that need it. Although she is famed for her outstanding basketball career, the lessons she shared run much deeper than an athletic success story. Good character drives her every step.
Who is Elena Delle Donne?
The 2015 WNBA MVP, Elena Delle Donne is one of the most dominant players in the WNBA. Entering her sixth season in the league, the Washington Mystics star (#11) has earned four WNBA All-Star honors and is a two-time All-WNBA First Team selection. A member of Team USA, Delle Donne took home a gold medal during the 2016 Olympics and was the WNBA scoring champion in 2015. The 2013 WNBA Rookie of the Year, the Delaware native was drafted second overall in the WNBA draft. Off the court, Delle Donne is a global ambassador for Special Olympics and the first national ambassador for the Lyme Research Alliance.Her Story
Ms. Delle Donne shared that she fell in love with basketball at four years of age. She knew early on that she wanted to achieve excellence in the sport with her eyes set on the WNBA and US Olympic team. She dedicated her life to basketball with a singular focus and “found herself” in the game, but through that singular focus lost herself at the same time. She poured all of her self-identity into basketball and found little left for herself and her family. She started to burn out in 8th grade and by the time she got to college, knew that she had to take a break from basketball to reexamine her life, her goals, and her purpose.The decision to take that time is what Ms. Delle Donne refers to as her proudest moment, “I am most proud of having the courage to walk away when there were so many expectations of who I needed to be and where I needed to be going to school. Everybody had this path paved for me and I just didn’t feel like it was the right thing at the time. So being able to have the courage at only 18 years of age and being able to step away really led me to where I am now.”
After refocusing her energies and prioritizing family, Ms. Delle Donne returned to basketball and achieved the excellence she sought as a young child. But rather than focus on her professional success during her talk with our students, she spoke about the connection to her family and her ability to advocate for those in need as the major motivations in her life. When asked about how she manages a life in the public eye particularly during the age of social media she stated simply, "The biggest thing for me is just worrying about the people that I care about the most and making sure that the people in my small circle are proud of me. If I'm doing that, it doesn't matter what anyone else has to say."
