 Media Credit: Courtesy of Melissa Owumi Basketball fan Melissa Owumi hopes to break down the gender barriers in the NBA, serving as a coach by 2024.
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"In the year 2024, I truly envision myself pacing up and down the sidelines of an NBA arena, as the head coach of a National Basketball Association franchise. I will be one of several female coaches to revolutionize the representation of women in a male-dominated sports league."
Melissa Owumi, A&S '08, is not your ordinary young woman. Born in Nigeria, her love for basketball did not bloom until she and her parents moved to Massachusetts in 1992. Even though she was raised alongside four brothers, Owumi considers herself a "girlie-girl." Yet her love of basketball is what defines her.
Owumi is one of the 2007 recipients of the CosmoGirl! Project 2024 Internship program. She will be working for CosmoGirl and the NBA in a joint internship.
It is with this project that she will get to work with those she has aspired to become. The CosmoGirl Project 2024, created in 2005, is an internship for female college students that have a desire to break down all gender barriers in today's society by 2024. Out of all the applicants throughout the United States, only six college students are chosen. It is all-expenses paid and this year's roster of companies include: The NBA, Saatchi & Saatchi, Merrill Lynch, J Records, Office of New York State Attorney General, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Office of New York Congresswoman Carolyn B. Mahoney.
Each student is given free housing in the New York University residence halls, airfare to and from their hometowns, free meals, and free transportation. Each student chosen must take classes at CosmoGirl, teaching them how to become women that will change today's gender specifics.
As player marketing intern, Owumi will be preparing for the NBA draft on June 28. Her responsibilities will include contacting agents and rookies, setting up appearances for them, and preparing them for the rookie transition program, which enables a smooth transition from playing college basketball to professional basketball. In these classes, the new players learn how to deal with all the new attention, how to speak better, who they should have around them, and how to discern the trustworthy people from those who only want to gain from their new fame. The rookies get to speak to all the NBA legends about the negative and positive things that come with going pro.
