Meet USU Eastern’s valedictorian: Ella Bradley
This year’s graduation commencement at Utah State University Eastern honors the class of 2022 and valedictorian Ella Bradley who will address her graduating class.
Bradley was born in England and lived there until she was five years old. She then moved to New Zealand where she has called home for the last 15 years.
Graduating with her associate degree in general education with a 4.0 GPA, Bradley is planning to continue her education in biochemistry and go on to be a radiologist, anesthesiologist or pharmacist. She has applied to schools in the U.S., including Salt Lake City, New York, Colorado and Texas.
One of her recent accomplishments was her score on her American Chemical Society exam, which put her in the 98th percentile.
Her love of chemistry, Bradley said, began in secondary school at St. Peter’s School in Cambridge, England where she would help her chemistry teacher during her study period. The school used a system known as Montessori education; a method that seeks to develop kid’s natural interests rather than a certain path planned for all students.
“Her early schooling was in a Montessori environment which really suited Ella with their self-directed style of learning,” said Bradley’s mom, Tania Smythe.
It was also at that school where she started playing basketball. Her best friend was on the team and best friend’s mom, Leann Walker, was the coach. Walker was once on the New Zealand women’s basketball team and competed in the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Olympics. Bradley said she learned a lot from Walker.
While playing on the team at St. Peter’s, Bradley and her teammates won fifth place at the International School Sport Federation World Schools Championship in Greece. She said Greece was her favorite place she had ever visited.
Bradley went on to compete with a New Zealand youth competition team and has visited more than 10 countries playing basketball. Even with all this travel, Ella was performing well in her academics.
“During high school Ella had a busy schedule competing in multiple sports at national level which meant a lot of time away from classes, but Ella managed her time and kept her academic grades up,” Smythe said.
After graduating high school, she moved to Price to start her college career at USU Eastern.
She had several options of different schools here in the U.S., but Bradley said what ultimately led her to the USU Eastern Golden Eagles were the coaches and the fact some of her teammates would be from New Zealand too.
In the 2020 school year, Morgan Warburton-Nelson, who had been at Price for six years, was a mentor for Bradley as she was the fourth Utah basketball player in history to be drafted to the Women’s National Basketball Association. Nelson also broke several records at University of Utah.
Basketball required many weekend trips, which Warburton-Nelson said was about every other week. She said these trips could last from a Wednesday morning to a Sunday afternoon, leaving the team with little time on campus.
But Bradley was able to balance both academics and being a student athlete.
During Bradley’s first year on campus during the 2020 school year, the coronavirus halted all activities. These activities included preseason basketball games where players get a chance to improve and get ready for the season.
That season the team only played for a few months, about 10 games, until they couldn’t play anymore due to restrictions. Bradley and her roommates went through three or four two-week lockdowns. It was hard enough for Bradley that she considered maybe not coming back to Price the following year.
“It was a really hard first year,” Bradley said. “It didn’t end up like how I wanted it to and I thought, ‘Do I really want to come back?’”
This whole experience taught Bradley to be resilient, which she said is probably her best attribute to date. She decided to come back though after going home to New Zealand for the summer.
“Sports has taught me to always come back,” Bradley said.
Warburton-Nelson said Bradley worked hard that summer and came back her sophomore year better than ever, greatly extending her game and improving in her around the rim work and shooting abilities.
“She was the most improved as far as our returners,” Nelson said. “She worked tirelessly on her skill development at home, and it proved beneficial because she was one of our top players and has had a lot of return because of that.”
After returning to campus after the summer, Nelson said Bradley put in an extra 30-40 minutes of practice time a week to further improve.
“She has also learnt to enjoy the journey as well as the results,” Smythe said.
Bradley’s hard work is shown in the Golden Eagles’ basketball game against the College of Southern Idaho. Nelson explained it was a particularly hard game for Bradley because of an injury she was playing with.
The stands were packed, and the atmosphere was buzzing with anticipation. The Eagles were the underdogs, but against all odds they took the win 62-58.
“There’s always a special feeling when the underdog team wins,” Bradley said.
Bradley scored 26 of the team’s 63 points, with the rest of her stats showing a total of 10 rebounds and two blocks.
Bradley hopes to keep playing basketball after graduating. Her biggest goal is to play for New Zealand’s home basketball team, the Tall Ferns.
“It’s a huge accomplishment to be able to wear your home team’s jersey,” Bradley said. “That would be the ultimate goal for me.”
When she’s off the court and finds herself with free time in the off-season, Bradley enjoys reading romance novels, horseback riding and skiing.
“Ella has given us lots of great memories with sporting successes but achieving valedictorian is such an honor for her and we are very proud,” Smythe said.
-A02338648@usu.edu
Featured photo by: Levi Sim