The Pride of Commencement 2002

Marian Washington and Lynn Pride

When Lynn Pride reported to her WNBA team training camp in April, she packed the essentials: sneakers, warm-ups and her Western Civilization reading materials.

Pride, a former women's basketball standout at KU, completed her degree in African-American studies this May. Because she was chosen as the seventh pick overall in the 2001 Women's National Basketball Association draft, she left KU with two semesters' worth of classes remaining toward her degree.

For all intents and purposes, Pride could have remained financially set even without a college degree, but some things were much more important to her than money.

"The fact that I'm the first in my family to graduate from college motivated me even more," she said.

Although the WNBA season takes place in the summer, Pride still had to juggle practices and training camp with classes and homework assignments. That meant a hectic travel schedule throughout the school year, shuttling back and forth between Lawrence and Minnesota, where she plays for the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx.

She received plenty of encouragement from several people at KU, including women's head basketball coach Marian Washington and Renate Mai-Dalton, associate professor of business and member of the KU Athletic Board. She also got a lot of support from Lynx coach, Brian Agler.

"Lynn is such a wonderful young person with a beautiful heart and a beautiful spirit," Washington said. "She accepted this challenge and she has responded."