About Us

Our Story

Edith Duru Onyenwere immigrated to the United States from Nigeria with her three brothers, alongside her mother when she was a young child. Shortly after she and her family arrived in the United States, Edith and her brothers began playing organized sports - something she had never done before. During this time, she tried a myriad of sports which included basketball, volleyball, track and field, and cross country. Sports were an enormous connecter in her family, and her parents supported all of them immensely. There was never a day where Edith and her brothers did not feel encouraged.

Her favorite sport of all of the ones she tried was basketball. The competitive nature and the ability to rely on her other teammates, while striving for a common goal intrigued her more than the other individual sports that she was involved in. Her excitement and love slowly dwindled, as she realized that she did not have the same opportunities in organized sports, that her brothers had in their respective sports. While her brothers continued to excel, she felt like her opportunities for organized sports, specifically basketball, was more of an afterthought. There were no professional leagues for women's basketball players at the time, and it was evident there was no clear path for what her sports future in basketball could look like. This created a tipping point in not only the way she viewed herself, but also illustrated the way society viewed girls in sport in general. There was an overall disservice to girl's and an undervaluing of girls' sports.

She couldn’t shake the question: Why were girls undervalued in the world of basketball? Why did it feel like their potential was being ignored? Why weren’t they given the same opportunities? The answer didn’t come to her immediately. She was disappointed in this moment, and in this reality. But she knew something. She knew she could change things. As she grew older, Edith’s passion for girls sports didn’t waver. Although her basketball career may not have manifested in the same way her brothers' careers did, she still had that burning desire to create an environment where girls were the at the forefront of athletics. That light was further ignited when her daughter was born in August of 1999.

Coming from an athletic background, Edith knew that there was a strong possibility that her daughter may want to eventually play sports as well. Edith's first experience in introducing her daughter to any kind of physical activity was ballet. Very quickly, Edith knew that it would not be the path for her. Michaela was taller than everyone else, extremely lanky and had long limbs that did not quite fit with what she needed to be successful in ballet. Tennis followed, and it also just did not stick. As time went on, and the years flew by, Edith and Michaela continued to try and find what sport fit Michaela the best. By the time Michaela was in middle school, she'd decided that track, volleyball and basketball would be the sports she'd settled on. She had a natural athletic ability, could jump as high as the sky and was as quick as lightning: a recipe of success in the making of a great athlete.

As she continued to grow in her athletic career, Michaela decided to move forward with both basketball and track. She attended Grandview High school, leaving as one of the best basketball players to ever come out of the state of Colorado. She also was able to win a state championship in both track and field and basketball the year she graduated in 2017. Making her mark, she left Grandview as the 4th all-time leading scorer in Colorado history scoring 2,290 points. After a successful high school career, she earned a full-ride scholarship to University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), where she finished in the top ten in multiple statistical categories. She went on to be drafted in the 2021 WNBA Draft, and was picked as the number six overall pick to the New York Liberty, winning the 2021 WNBA Rookie of the Year award as well.

This connected Michaela and Edith on a deeper level. Michaela was a walking testimony of what it looked like when girls had the resources and opportunities to elevate in their athletic career and that truly thrilled Edith. Seeing her daughter excel in this way further fulfilled that excitement, and both Michaela and Edith wanted that same reality for future generations. They both felt the sentiment that girls deserved better. Girls sports deserved better and specifically girls basketball deserved better. This led them to create a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing visibility for girls in sports. This was the beginning of the journey of Bridge to Destiny.