Frances Laurent/Courtesy photo

BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter

Los Alamos High School alumna tennis player Frances Laurent has been named a regional winner of this year’s Novo Nordisk Donnelly Scholarship. The regional scholarships of $5,000 are awarded to youth athletes (age 16-21) who have diabetes and play tennis competitively in tournaments or on their school team. 

Laurent lettered all four years in high school girls’ tennis, playing her first three years at Park City High School and her senior year at Los Alamos High School. For the 2021 season, Frances had a 6-1 win loss record playing #3 singles, and 7-0 playing #2 doubles. The LAHS team won districts and took second place at state.

Laurent is in her first semester of medical sciences undergraduate studies at the University of Utah. She is the daughter of Anne and Steve Laurent.

The Novo Nordisk Donnelly Scholarship is named in honor of Tracey Donnelly Maltby and Diane Donnelly Stone, who along with their father, Bud Donnelly, all played Division I collegiate tennis while living with the challenges of Type 1 diabetes. Tracey played singles and doubles for four years at the University of Iowa and received All Big Ten honors. Diane was a three-time All-American and 1987 NCAA doubles champion at Northwestern University and will be inducted into the 2022 ITA Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame. Bud played singles and doubles for four years at Western Michigan University and won six individual Mid-American Conference titles.

The Novo Nordisk Donnelly Scholarship is part of a slate of $435,000 scholarship grants that the USTA Foundation has awarded this year to a total of 46 high school students. Each year, the USTA Foundation awards scholarships to deserving youth who have participated in USTA and other organized youth tennis programs such as the National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) network, have demonstrated high academic achievement and require financial assistance for college matriculation.