Finishing Big

Opening new doors

Juah Toe ’20 knew West Chester University was the right place for from the moment she arrived. During her first campus visit, she noticed the community had the familiar warmth of home — as well as the opportunities to try something entirely new.

“It just felt right,” Juah recalls. “The campus was gorgeous, and everyone I met was so nice. There were so many possibilities, it made me look forward to my future here.”

One of those possibilities was rugby. Juah first saw the sport on TV during the 2016 Summer Olympics but had never played it herself. She signed up at an Involvement Fair as a first-year. By her junior year, she was the rugby team’s captain.

In spite of her many athletic and academic successes — including becoming WCU’s first student athlete to win the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award — Juah was unsure whether she’d be able to graduate. Her family wasn’t able to support her tuition, leaving Juah scrambling for the funds to return her senior year.

Then she was awarded the Dr. Edward Matejkovic ’69 Endowed Scholarship, named after the longtime WCU athletic director who made the Golden Rams a regional powerhouse. For Juah, it was an honor — and a lifeline from having her education cut short. “My family doesn’t have the best financial situation, and a lot of my stress comes from not being able to pay for certain things,” Juah says. “It is a really big blessing that I am able to finish.”

The power of persistence

For Juah, the chance to graduate confirms what she says is the most important lesson she’s learned at WCU: never give up. “There have been so many times I’ve confided my doubts to my professors and advisor,” she says. “No one ever said I couldn’t do it. There were always people at the University supporting me, telling me today might be hard, but your future can be what you want it to be — you just have to keep getting back up and pushing forward.”

It’s a fundamental belief echoed in Juah’s studies — she’s a psychology major who counts Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness and Well-Being among her favorite classes. She also lives out her conviction by participating in a vast array of extracurricular activities and leadership positions.

In addition to being an Honors College senior with a 3.9 GPA, Juah serves as the University’s vice president of the national leadership honor society Omicron Delta Kappa, secretary of the women’s service organization The Abbé Society, and sports and recreation director of the Honors Student Association. She has twice taken part in a delegation to South Africa to help develop after-school programs, and she established a local recreational program to build children’s teamwork skills. She also recently led the women’s rugby team to a national title.

“I have always been a ‘people’ person — I just get people, and I like helping them,” Juah says. “So I appreciate that service is built into the University’s culture. From getting the rugby team more involved in the community, to serving pancakes at the local senior center with The Abbé Society, community service makes my heart nice and warm.”