Beyond Barriers: Brigid Merenda

"Your skills now will transfer into a future career."

In addition to being a former women's' basketball student-athlete, Brigid Merenda currently works as a color analyst for the University of South Florida Women’s Basketball team and is an attorney at Trenam Law.

Merenda’s role as an athlete has opened new doors for her and allowed her to make an impact on others. Merenda plays a part in the YMCA’s New Tampa basketball program. She coaches a team of kids and this past year she earned the honor of Volunteer of the Year because of her hard work. Merenda is also member of the University of South Florida’s Varsity Club and participates in a variety of different organizations around the Tampa Bay area.

At the Beyond Barriers event, Merenda said, “Your skills now will transfer into a future career.” She explained how basketball and being an attorney was somewhat similar. Every day she works on a variety of different cases that come through her office. Both basketball and law require preparation in order to develop a good game plan. A good plan makes it easier to execute the task that is at hand in the future. Her role in both also taught her how to win and lose, and that regardless of the outcome we should take each as a learning experience. Her story and quote inspired me because it tells me that I should see each interaction as an opportunity to learn. Although it’s easy to think that some skills may not apply to my future, Merenda’s personal experience shows how it created an impact on her life today.

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