NCAA Woman of the Year finalist goes from Fresno State track and field standout to Minnesota veterinary school

By Geoff Thurner

Like most new students who arrive on campus, Amelia DiPaola Robinson had no inkling of the unexpected journey ahead of her, especially in becoming one of Fresno State’s top track and field student-athletes.

As students prepared for the first day of classes in fall 2019, the would-be freshman was nowhere near campus or even enrolled. She was likely walking dogs, which was her part-time job, or coaching youth baton twirlers near her home near San Francisco.

The Fremont native had already taken a gap year after graduating from American High School in 2018 with dreams of becoming an international class baton twirler – a sport she started competing in at age 5.

The demands of the sport meant practicing with a small Bay Area club and personal coach for over a decade and competing nine months per year.

In summer 2019, that dedication paid off with national and international titles in the artistic twirl category at the “A” level.

However, she began looking into the possibility of competing collegiately in track and field. Two days before fall classes officially started, she received good news during a call from new Fresno State track and field coach Jason Drake.

Responding to an email from her, he saw she had qualified for the high school state championships in the discus as a sophomore, junior and senior, and also in the shot put as a senior. Her personal bests of 42 feet in shot put and 149 feet in discus offered promise at the college level, so he offered her a chance to walk on.

“I had been looking at community colleges, but I hadn’t been training for throwing for over a year,” DiPaola Robinson says. “A lot of coaches weren’t interested anymore in recruiting me, so I was a little lost at that point. That offer was super exciting, and I was ready to immediately jump in.” 

Four days later, she had enrolled at Fresno State, moved into the dorms and started taking classes. Academically, she was setting her sights on a pre-veterinary medicine degree path. The course load is one of its most difficult on campus, especially for a suburban-raised student who had no familiarity raising pets, animals or livestock.

On the track, she embraced the challenge of learning two new events – the indoor weight throw and outdoor hammer throw, while adjusting to a new weightlifting and training schedule with her new coach.

With a dedicated work ethic, and a great combination of kinesthetic body awareness from playing hockey, soccer, volleyball and wrestling, and spinning her body in baton twirling, she made rapid progress in practice. That winter, she placed ninth in the weight throw and 14th in the shot put at the Mountain West Conference Indoor Championships.

“I loved being a part of the track and field team,” she says. “I had missed the community part of it, and seeing the pay off of being an athlete and trying to improve a little each day. I also enjoyed seeing the diverse mix of events, and supporting and cheering each other on at practice and meets.”

However, less than a month later, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down practice and competition from March until the end of 2020. 

To help combat the challenge of staying connected to her teammates, she volunteered to help the campus Student-Athlete Advisory Committee through Zoom meetings, and took a higher course load to keep her on track academically.

Before the pandemic, the student-led organization was already a key resource for student-athletes. Its community outreach events encouraged professional and personal growth to develop leadership, career and life skills. Now, its impact was even stronger as a bridge of support to student-athletes who had extra stress and less emotional support.

As a sophomore she served as one of the organization’s two representatives for the Mountain West Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and then was named the Fresno State president of the committee as a junior.

She coordinated a campus cleanup event in November 2023 in partnership with Associated Students, Inc., campus groundskeepers and the Beautify Fresno organization. Over 200 student-athletes helped clean up campus areas where trees and rose bushes would be planted.

When classes resumed in-person after the quarantine, she found equal inspiration in her pre-veterinary and animal science labs classes that emphasized hands-on teaching.

“I owe a lot to faculty like Dr. Gayle O’Bannon and Dr. Fabio Iared, who are working veterinarians, and give us such amazing instruction and insight into the profession,” she says. “Other classes on the farm, like the beef cattle management class, were equally important. [Faculty member] Ryan Person had us give shots, do pregnancy checks and even castrate bulls – things that veterinarians might have to do any day – while encouraging and supporting us.”

Those connections put her on course to gain acceptance into the University of Minnesota veterinary medicine program, which she started last fall.

One of only 32 accredited veterinary medicine colleges across the nation, the competition for spots in the program is intense, even for a student like DiPaola Robinson, who graduated magna cum laude with a 3.84 GPA. She says her leadership and time management skills, and hands-on animal science classes on the campus farm helped her chances greatly.

DiPaola Robinson says over 3,000 students applied to the University of Minnesota program, and only 50 out-of-state students were accepted.

That same willingness to tackle new challenges helped her excel on the track as a four-time NCAA hammer throw competitor and one of 30 finalists for the NCAA’s Woman of the Year honor in January 2025. That honor drew from a pool of tens of thousands of women’s collegiate student-athletes across the nation based on their academic, athletic, professional and community-based accomplishments.

Her athletic resume featured top-four conference finishes in the outdoor hammer throw three different years, and twice in the indoor and outdoor shot put, and once in the indoor weight throw.

She ranked fifth in school history in the hammer throw, and seventh in the shot put indoors and 10th outdoors, respectively.

At the NCAA awards banquet in Nashville, she was able to meet student-athletes from other sports with remarkable stories, and reunite with Drake and a former teammate from Iceland, a friend from Oklahoma, and her mother –  her guests at the special awards dinner.

As she now wraps up her first year as a Minnesota veterinary student, she balances a busy schedule of 27 units of classes, labs and work with local veterinarians. With hopes of focusing on large animals after she receives her degree, she revels in visiting farms within a two-hour radius of the St. Paul campus and meeting new people and animals.

The Midwest is not only known for its emphasis on agriculture and livestock production, but also its often-harsh winters. While some transplant Californians might complain about the ice, snow and cold winds, she has taken advantage of it to join an adult hockey league. 

Luckily for her, she had already played hockey starting at the age 4 under the urging of her mother, a former gymnast who had taken up the sport recreationally. 

“Hockey is a nice diversion, since I play with a lot of dads who keep it fun, and help me feel welcomed in a new community,” she says. “I’ve always enjoyed playing new sports to challenge myself to grow in new directions and connect with others. The journey from training and working with coaches and professionals has taught me to trust myself, and is helping prepare me to be successful in life.”

– Geoff Thurner is a communications specialist at Fresno State, specializing in the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology and the College of Social Sciences.