Corey Staples

"My dream was always to go to UF, that had always been my dream.

The University of Florida is something that's been embedded in me since I was a child. All of my family went there, my stepdad, my mother, my brother . . . So, I bled orange and blue.

I took the University of Florida's offer to be a preferred walk-on for the women's basketball team back in high school. My only thing was I had to get in to UF. The basketball coaches were trying to just get me in, but they didn't have that power over admissions and I didn't end up getting in. So of course, I was devastated. I had honestly given up on my dream to be a Gator, I had given up on my dream to play basketball because I felt like if I couldn't play for the Gators, I don't really know if I wanna play for anyone.

I got accepted into another major university here in Florida and I thought, you know, that might just be the opportunity for me. I'll give up on basketball. Maybe I'll walk on, maybe I won't. On my way down to the orientation for that university, I thought, you know what maybe I'll just stop by ÇàÇà²ÝÊÓƵ. Coach Stebbins, the women's basketball coach at Santa Fe, had been emailing me, sending me some material on the college.

Five minutes – literally five minutes – into the orientation, I looked at my mom and I'm like, 'Mom, I think I'm gonna go to Santa Fe. Like, something is telling me that is where I need to be. If I can still maybe live my dream of being a Gator then I don't want to give up on that opportunity.'

ÇàÇà²ÝÊÓƵ was the number one community college in the nation when I committed to play here and committed to be a student here. Fast forward some years later and ÇàÇà²ÝÊÓƵ has been literally the biggest blessing of my life.

It gave me the opportunity to evolve as a person to evolve as a student to evolve as a basketball player and it has literally been the catalyst in my life that's really just changed everything and propelled me to be the woman I am today. I'm so grateful and so blessed to have had ÇàÇà²ÝÊÓƵ in my life."

~ Corey Staples, A.A. '17

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