{"id":7907,"date":"2021-03-05T10:16:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T15:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marymount.edu\/?p=7907"},"modified":"2021-08-03T22:47:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T02:47:00","slug":"wellness-manager-uses-personal-story-of-overcoming-adversity-to-help-mu-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marymount.edu\/blog\/wellness-manager-uses-personal-story-of-overcoming-adversity-to-help-mu-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Wellness manager uses personal story of overcoming adversity to help Marymount students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In 2013, Marymount University wellness case manager Yilret Yiljep was on top of the world. He had traveled far from his home country of Nigeria to chase his dream of becoming a college basketball player, and was now fulfilling those aspirations at the Division I level with American University.<\/p>\n<p>But the onset of frightening symptoms brought his world crashing down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMidway through my freshman season, I started experiencing symptoms of heart problems \u2013 I had chest palpitations, shortness of breath, tightness around my chest,\u201d Yiljep said. \u201cI was later diagnosed with a medical condition called cardiomyopathy, and basically I was told that I couldn\u2019t play basketball anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wellness case manager, former D-I basketball player uses personal story to help Marymount students\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nzOtWbL-7CQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>For the next four years, he felt more like an honorary team member \u2013 attending every practice, participating in all team meals, but unable to play in games. The overall experience of losing what he loved most led to an identity crisis, as everything he had been working towards ended far too soon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI started questioning everything. I was trying to figure out who I was without basketball, and that was really hard for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Yiljep got a second chance. After experiencing similar heart-related symptoms in 2017, he checked into a hospital and discovered that his supposed rare condition was actually a misdiagnosis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was told that I never really had a heart condition, that I just had anxiety and panic attacks,\u201d Yiljep explained. \u201cWe figured out that I would be able to live a normal life again, and I was eventually able to come back and play basketball as a graduate student. Those last two years were amazing, and it was so great to be out there competing again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following his last two seasons of college basketball and obtaining bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees, Yiljep decided to dedicate his career to helping future generations of college students who are going through similar bouts with adversity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to work in higher education because, just going through college, I had so many issues I had to work through. I knew that moving forward, I wanted to be in a position where I could impact the lives of students in a campus setting.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7910\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7910\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7910\" src=\"https:\/\/marymount.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Web-2.jpg\" alt=\"Yilret Yiljep in Marymount University's Office of Wellness, Prevention and Education\" width=\"700\" height=\"420\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7910\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yiljep talking with a student worker in Marymount University&#8217;s Office of Wellness, Prevention and Education.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As case manager for Marymount University\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/marymount.edu\/student-life\/health-wellness\/office-of-wellness-prevention-and-education\/\">Office of Wellness, Prevention and Education<\/a>, Yiljep oversees a team of 10 staff and faculty members who provide care for students and connect them to resources on campus and in the greater Arlington community. Services offered include peer-led workshops, health education consultations, food security initiatives and more.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStudents go through so much, especially right now with COVID, so we try to connect students to as many resources as possible,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s more than just helping students through situations that arise during their time at Marymount. We want to leave a lasting impact through lifestyle changes, cultivating healthy habits and helping them continue those as they go through life. That\u2019s the biggest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; In 2013, Marymount University wellness case manager Yilret Yiljep was on top of the world. He had traveled far from his home country of Nigeria to chase his dream of becoming a college basketball player, and was now fulfilling those aspirations at the Division I level with American University. But the onset of frightening [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/marymount.edu\/blog\/wellness-manager-uses-personal-story-of-overcoming-adversity-to-help-mu-students\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[449,456,464,461,451,453,460,454,455,15,459,450,462,452,463,458,457],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Wellness manager uses personal story of overcoming adversity to help Marymount students - Marymount University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yilret Yiljep, Marymount wellness case manager and former D-I basketball player, missed nearly four years of competition due to a misdiagnosis.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marymount.edu\/blog\/wellness-manager-uses-personal-story-of-overcoming-adversity-to-help-mu-students\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wellness manager uses personal story of overcoming adversity to help Marymount students\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yilret Yiljep, Marymount wellness case manager and former D-I basketball player, missed nearly four years of competition due to a misdiagnosis.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/marymount.edu\/blog\/wellness-manager-uses-personal-story-of-overcoming-adversity-to-help-mu-students\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Marymount University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-05T15:16:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-04T02:47:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/marymount.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Web-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"420\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nmunson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"nmunson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/marymount.edu\/blog\/wellness-manager-uses-personal-story-of-overcoming-adversity-to-help-mu-students\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/marymount.edu\/blog\/wellness-manager-uses-personal-story-of-overcoming-adversity-to-help-mu-students\/\",\"name\":\"Wellness manager uses personal story of overcoming adversity to help Marymount students - 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