From Cleats to a White Coat

Baylor soccer alumna Precious Akanyirige, B.S. ’18, M.D., traded her elite defensive tactics for a different kind of challenge — the demanding world of medicine. After graduating from Baylor, she swapped her cleats for a white coat, enrolling in the M.D./M.P.H. program in Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, adding a research gap year in Tanzania.

Baylor fans may remember a number of career highlights for Akanyirige, particularly her 2017 golden goal game winner over Notre Dame to send the Bears to the program’s first-ever NCAA Elite Eight. 

Reflecting on her soccer career, Akanyirige added, “My highlights are reflecting on the excitement and challenge of that level of competition and appreciating the smaller moments where I was able to build community and was given a space to grow throughout my four years.”

The former All-Big 12 defender and Big 12 Scholar Athlete of the Year earned the 2023 Excellence in Public Health Award, given by the U.S. Public Health Service. The national award is given to medical students who have made significant contributions to address nationwide public health issues. 

Now, Akanyirige is progressing through her anesthesiology residency at Northwestern, ready to make a positive impact on patients’ lives.

With Baylor soccer alumni spread throughout the country and around the world, Akanyirige stays close with several of her former teammates — “shoutout to weddings, for sure” — and makes plans to try to get together with them whenever the opportunity arises.

While you might not see Dr. Akanyirige in green and gold on the soccer field anymore, her Baylor spirit and talents have carried into a career of healing and caring for each patient she encounters.