{"id":34730,"date":"2011-05-06T08:14:14","date_gmt":"2011-05-06T12:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=34730"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:42:18","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:42:18","slug":"class-of-2011-maya-moore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/05\/class-of-2011-maya-moore\/","title":{"rendered":"Class of 2011: Maya Moore"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the University counts down to Commencement, UConn Today is featuring some of this year’s outstanding graduating students, nominated by their academic school or college or another University program in which they participated. For additional profiles of students in the Class of 2011, click here<\/a>.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"<p>Maya<\/a>
Maya Moore, CLAS \u201911, and Coach Geno Auriemma. Photo provided by Athletic Communications<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maya Moore\u2019s highly competitive nature has led her to great success on the basketball court \u2013 winning two NCAA championships, being a four-time First Team All-American, and ending her time at UConn as the most prolific winner in NCAA history with a 150-4 record. But it also has driven her to succeed in the classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not competitive with other students, but with myself, making sure I\u2019m able to be the best student I can be,\u201d Moore says. \u201cKnowing if there is a study session and I\u2019m not confident with the material, I\u2019m going to go to the study session so I can come into the test feeling confident. I feel that I\u2019ve had a great opportunity to go to a great university [on scholarship]; I might as well get a great education to benefit as much as I can from the opportunity. I feel I\u2019ve done that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a 3.7 GPA in an individualized major in sports media and promotion, Moore has also been nationally recognized for her classroom achievements. For the past two years, she was named Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year, College Sports Information Directors Association\u2019s Academic All-American of the Year. This year she was named the 2011 Capital One University Division Academic All-American of the Year, and also received the NCAA Elite 88 Award for the highest GPA of all students competing in the Final Four.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaya is competitive and that\u2019s the word I should use,\u201d says women\u2019s head basketball coach Geno Auriemma. \u201cI don\u2019t know that it comes real easy for her. She\u2019s got to work at it. So to be that competitive and work so hard that\u2019s she\u2019s recognized as the best student-athlete in the country, that\u2019s a testament to her work and her mindset. Very few people that I\u2019ve ever met have that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruce Cohen, director of UConn\u2019s Counseling Program for Intercollegiate Athletics and academic advisor for the women\u2019s basketball team, says, \u201cMaya has an incredible healthy and sincere intellectual curiosity about all things. She doesn\u2019t look at things on the surface level. She\u2019s interested in what\u2019s behind things. I don\u2019t think there are too many people like her that come along. She\u2019s perfectly normal, which is a funny thing because she\u2019s so amazing. She\u2019s down to earth and accessible. She\u2019s unpretentious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore credits her family, especially her mother Kathryn, with instilling a passion for learning. She knows that her family, teammates, and coaches take as much pride in her academic achievements as in her success in front of sold-out crowds at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been something that makes me think back to high school, taking AP classes and getting a positive educational experience growing up so when I got to college I wanted to learn, I wanted to engage with my professor and fellow students in class, and soak up as much of the educational experience as I could,\u201d Moore says. \u201cIt\u2019s been great just being around other students who are great students, having different professors who are passionate about their work and what they teach. It\u2019s been fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore hopes to one day follow in the footsteps of another Husky Academic All-American, Rebecca Lobo of ESPN, by pursuing a career in television. Her immediate future, however, will remain on the basketball court. As the top selection in the 2011 WNBA draft, Moore will begin her career in professional basketball as a member of the Minnesota Lynx, while continuing her role as a part of the USA National Women\u2019s Basketball Team coached by Auriemma that will represent the United States in London at the 2012 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maya Moore’s competitive nature has driven her to success in class as well as on the court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-34730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 01:50:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34730"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37407,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34730\/revisions\/37407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34730"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=34730"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=34730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}