Nakobe Dean
Although Dean left University of Georgia after football season to prepare to enter the upcoming NFL Draft, his mark as an athlete, scholar, and caring person is indelible. He says he balanced athletics and academics by “keeping what’s important, important.” His parents always emphasized education as a priority.
“I’m a competitive person,” Dean says. “I was already taking AP classes prior to college coaches coming to see me. It was always a sense of pride; it was who I was before I was known as a football player, and that didn’t change.”
Dean sustained straight A’s throughout high school. “In ninth grade, the teacher had us write a letter to our senior selves, and one of my goals was to make all A’s throughout high school,” says Dean, whose parents and long-time friends have been his support system.
He could not quite sustain a 4.0 GPA in college but would not back down from the challenging major he had selected, mechanical engineering. His mother used to take him to visit a Veterans Affairs hospital, where he was inspired by amputees.
“I want to design and build prosthetics and things like that,” says Dean, who received the Ken and Jody Jackson Family Scholarship and the Ramsey Scholarship for Academic & Athletic Excellence. Dean is a member of Omega Psi Phi, a historically African American fraternity, and those connections have also encouraged him to keep striving.
Cory Kopaniasz, Dean’s athletic academic advisor, says from the moment Dean set foot on campus he had a high-level academic mindset. “He’s a hard-working kid that is so driven,” says Kopaniasz. “He works his tail off to do well academically. It’s important for him to do his best in the classroom.”
