A LeBow Student-Athlete Devotes Her Final Season to Service
This basketball season, LeBow student-athlete Grace O’Neill is playing for something bigger, win or lose. A fourth-year finance major and starting point guard on the Drexel women’s basketball team, O’Neill’s performance benefits Assisting Others, an initiative where players use their on-court performance to raise money for meaningful causes.
O’Neill is fundraising for Special Olympics Pennsylvania, a longtime Drexel collaborator and a previous partner for a Nonprofit Business Consulting course at LeBow. This selection was inspired by two family members: her cousin, Meghan Creighton BSBA finance ’16, a former Dragons player who started Assisting Others during her fifth year at Drexel, and another cousin, Cali, a one-year old born with trisomy-21, the most common form of Down syndrome.
“I’ve volunteered with Special Olympics before, and I wanted to find a way to honor Cali and support a community that my family is now a part of,” O’Neill says. “I love the organization and couldn’t have been happier to support them.”
Despite standing five feet and seven inches tall and playing on the perimeter as a guard, O’Neill has been one of the team’s top rebounders in recent seasons, so she’s accepting pledges for donations for each rebound she snags.
“I’m really excited to carry on what Meghan started. It’s a great way to give back to the community.”
Creighton started Assisting Others her senior year and raised nearly $25,000 through donations and pledges based on her assist totals.
“When I started Assisting Others, my hope was that it would create a lasting impact beyond the court,” Creighton says. “Seeing Grace continue the tradition — and dedicate her season to Special Olympics Pennsylvania in honor of my niece, Cali — is such a powerful reminder of how community and compassion can multiply over time.”
“Grace is really wise beyond her years and has had a positive impact on so many people. She gives her all on the court and never gives up on any play, so it won’t be a surprise to see her exceed her goals.”
Off the court, O’Neill says she thrives from Drexel’s busy schedule and takes pride in her academics; from her being named to the College Sports Communicators’ Academic All-District team and the Colonial Athletic Association’s Commissioner’s Academic Honor Roll with Honors, that commitment is certainly clear.
“With playing sports growing up, you have to learn to balance things, and I honestly think, over the years, it’s gotten easier, even as classes have gotten harder,” she says.
Her co-op experience earlier this year as a joint replacement sales intern with Stryker represented another step up in demands of time and energy.
Supplying equipment to hospitals throughout the Delaware Valley, O’Neill says, “was an unbelievable experience.”
“It’s the only internship in medical sales where you get experience in the operating room. I dove right into it, learned a ton about anatomy and got to experience the pressure of working in the OR.”
Since returning to the classroom after that experience, she’s taken finance electives to help her explore an interest in personal finance and investing, as well as courses to round out her minor in marketing.
“I want to cherish both the basketball piece and the classroom piece of my senior year, and I really feel grateful for it all,” she says.
She has goals beyond raising funds for Assisting Others and maintaining her near-perfect GPA, though: winning the CAA championship for a second year in a row.
“The conference tournament always falls during final week in winter term,” she says. “That can be tough, but I feel like I can manage it.”
