Greenhills athlete signs National Letter of Intent

After years of training and increasingly successful competition, Greenhills senior Lizzie van der Walde this morning signed a National Letter of Intent to attend the University of South Carolina on an equestrian scholarship.

Lizzie van der Wilde and family

Van der Walde signed the document during the school’s regularly scheduled Upper School assembly, to the cheers and applause of her classmates.

“I’m really excited to be going to South Carolina,” she said afterward. “Their team has been really good the last few years.”

That’s actually a bit of an understatement, according to Greenhills’ College Counseling Director Dick Tobin. The Gamecocks equestrian team is ranked third in the nation.

Tobin said he’s proud of Greenhills’ latest NCAA Division 1 scholarship athlete.

“She should be extremely proud, too,” Tobin said. “Getting a scholarship to a Division 1 school is quite an accomplishment.”

For her part, van der Walde is looking forward to traveling to Columbia next summer to get started on her collegiate career. She plans on attending the business school, but isn’t sure just yet what she might major in.

“I really enjoyed my visit there,” she said. “Columbia is a nice college town. It reminded me a little of Ann Arbor.”