Nayani Lewis, a senior at St. Monica Preparatory school has been named Student Athlete of the Week by the Los Angeles Sentinel. The accomplished student is having a great senior year and has been selected to attend the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) on a golf scholarship this fall.
Nayani’s official visit to the University was in February and it introduced her to the east coast, and she enjoyed the experience of seeing trees, which was different from her hometown of Los Angeles, Calif. During the visit, Nayani connected with Tiana Jones, the head coach of the women’s golf team at the public historically Black land-grant research university in Princess Anne, Maryland, and the encounter changed her future.
HOW IT STARTED
Nayani joined the Tee Divas and Tee Dudes (TDTD) Junior Golf Program in April 2021 after COVID-19 quarantine reintroduced her to golfing. Nayani’s experience with TDTD greatly improved her golfing skills and after spending stints at Culver City and Palisades high schools she then transferred to St. Monica Preparatory School. Her main reason was because of the school’s golf team and arts program, which go hand-in-hand for her. As a sophomore, the Advanced Placement Art student earned a 4.0 GPA there and became the captain of her high school golf team.
Nayani serves as the vice president of the Black Culture Club at St. Monica and researched their school’s patron saint, who is from Northern Africa. She made a Black mass where the members listened to Gospel music. The TDTD and Southern California Golf Association helped her to obtain funding to compete in tournaments and invited her to events on professional golf courses.
“I’ve been mentoring my teammates who are also my friends,” Nayani said to the Lis Angeles Sentinel. “In our league, there isn’t a lot of diversity, so making sure that we recruit young Black players, we recruit P.O.C. players is a priority for us.” Nayani emphasized the importance of diversity to her teammates recruited young Blacks and other persons of color as players.
Through her efforts, Nayani helped raise awareness of the St. Monica golf team, which led to the boy’s team having enough players to qualify for the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF). Nayani, is also the owner of a business called “Nayani’s Pet Portraits”, where she creates art of pets. Developing an art portfolio in school which required her to do 15 pieces with a theme, Nayani’s theme was, “How I felt other people viewed the Black experience during the 2020 riots and pandemic.” The talented young woman has already gained strong leadership skills and puts it to use managing the boy’s golf team while promoting diversity in her league.
