Dyani Lopez '20 Recruiting Profile

On January 29, 2003, when I was 11 months and 29 days old,  my life changed forever. I was sent to the ER at Vallejo Kaiser. I was diagnosed with  type 1 Diabetes and Celiac disease. My parents and doctor’s didn’t expect me to last long on this earth because of my chronic illnesses. My strict gluten free food was hard to find and my parents often drove several hours to buy groceries so I could eat the proper nutrients. After several years of my parents learning to care for me, I started to play sports and music. My parents wanted me to have a normal life as possible. Up until I was 10 years old my parents struggled to give me insulin, check my blood sugar, and carb count the gluten free food for me. My Mom did not work and had been volunteering in my classroom to be near me adjusting my insulin through the day. In 4th grade my teacher Cameron Fraser saw the challenges that my family faced, he helped me to be more independent for the rest of my life. He told my mom to go home and took me under his wing and helped me check myself  and carb count my food so I could give myself insulin. If it wasn’t for my inspirational 4th grade teacher Cameron who went beyond his duties I would not be the person I am today. We are forever grateful.

  Sports have always been an important component of my life; training for and playing sports keeps me competitive, vigorous, happy, and healthy. After learning to give myself insulin, becoming involved in sports has been a way of taking care of my diabetes ever since I discovered I had it. I started taking swimming when I was five  because I was enamored with the movie Finding Nemo, and also because my doctor thought it would be a good way for me to maintain fitness and health to keep my diabetes at bay.  During my first few years of swimming, my mom was checking my blood sugar constantly to make sure that I didn’t dip too low before a race. My diabetes remained in check through the years, and I worked hard to be a competitive swimmer. In 3rd grade, my family moved to a new town, where I joined the Waves club swim team. The year that I moved was hard for me to adjust to new people and especially new, unfamiliar coaches. It was a completely different environment, and I had just moved to a new town, so adjusting to new people, coaches, and friends took some effort, and I almost gave up. Everyone thought I was strange because of my Type 1 Diabetes, but my new coaches and teammates saw that I practiced hard and swam fast and learned to value me. I discovered volleyball in fourth grade, and fell in love with that sport, too, so I both swam and played volleyball through high school. In sports my rigorous training has earned me a two-time swimming league championship title in the 100 Backstroke and I am favored to capture the third title this year. In Volleyball I am an Outside hitter and scored the highest points of my team and made All-League. I am Team Captain for both sports. I’m very committed to my sports and have worked hard to improve and compete.

I will use my discipline and commitment that I have learned for  treating my health and competing in team sports to learn and earn my degrees in Ethnic Studies and Forensic Science at any University . I have learned to treat my medical conditions and challenges so that they won’t stop me in exceeding my academics and athletics goals. I hope to inspire other people with Chronic Conditions to overcome their challenges at any University.