Jan. 16, 2012
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A native of Douala, Cameroon, Steve Leandre Noubissie Tchiengang grew up playing soccer before being turned on to basketball as a teenager. While he has plans of pursuing a career ininternational business, he hopes to make basketball his profession after graduating this May.
On trading soccer for basketball:
“Soccer is the sport in my country, just likefootball or basketball might be the sport forkids here. That’s the ball that I first had asa kid. I played for a little while, and all of asudden I realized that I was obviously tallerthan most of the guys. The first time I played[basketball] was 2004. It was kind of differentsport; totally different from anything thatwe’d seen, rarely played around the country.So I gave it a try and ended up going toSouth Africa with a group of kids representingmy country in a program that theNBA carries all around third-worldcountries to help kids and promotebasketball. After that, Idecided to come [to the U.S.]and further my educationand… here I am now.”
On his philanthropic work:
“My freshman year, I waslucky enough to meet a studentthat’s currently a sophomorehere, but he was in highschool [then]. He introducedme to a group of refugeesfrom the struggle in the civilwar countries in Africa. Ifelt like it was a call for meto keep in touch with thesekids and convey some of the lessons I havelearned throughout my time here. Numberone was learn the language so you can transitionbetter, understand and get to knowthe people better than speaking your ownlanguage around your countrymen. So I hada good talk with those kids about the importanceof learning English.
“I like to go speak to kids that are strugglingmaking good decisions or following classand stuff like that. If I can impact a kid’s lifeor give them advice based on my struggle, Ilove to do that.”
On his major in economics:
“Econ is a back-up plan. I would love to playbasketball, overseas or wherever it takes me.Because I have fallen in love with the game,and I’ve invested and put a lot into the game.I’m already getting a free education becauseof basketball, but I also would like to playprofessionally someday. Economics is agood degree coming out of Vanderbilt, andthat’s the reason I chose it. Initially, I wantedto be an engineer. My second thought wasinternational business; econ is the closestthing here to international business.”
On his use of social media:
“A couple years ago, one of my close friends,Hasheem Thabeet, introduced me to [Twitter].Mostly I use my Twitter either to retweetinspirational quotes to those who follow meor maybe give inspiration through thingsthat I’m doing. I’ll tell them when I’m goingto work out and just to keep a positive attitude.Inspiring people that follow me, that’sthe whole thing behind Twitter. And I like toblog on Facebook.”
On his offseason work:
“Given that I had surgery there was not muchto do. I just worked on thinking positively,because it was hard to see the guys workingand I couldn’t do anything. I could workon my form a little bit, my jumper, but thatwas about the only thing I could do. I wasjust thinking things through, having a positiveattitude in everything I do. That was the mainfocus that I had this offseason.”
