Sooners' Lampkin wants to become environmental engineer
Oklahoma freshman Nydia Lampkin's interests go far beyond basketball. She's the only Oklahoma women's basketball player with a Class C operator's license. The 6-foot-3 forward from Palm Bay, Florida, is averaging 8.5 minutes off the bench and is an important piece for the Sooners moving forward. Leading into Wednesday's 10:30 a.m. game against Iowa State, Lampkin spoke with The Oklahoman about her plans beyond college, music and looking forward to playing a morning game in front of a large crowd.
Q: What are your career goals?
A: "I want to be an environmental engineer. My future career goal, I want to work with countries that are less fortunate — third-world countries or developing countries — to provide resources to them that they need. We're very fortunate to have good clean water, clean air. They don't have access to that. I want to unify everybody. I feel like everybody should work together." How did you get interested in that?
"My freshman year in high school, I got put into a water academy program. At first, I wondered, 'What is this?' But after a year in it, I realized I really liked it. After that, I decided to continue with it. I just fell in love with it. I think it was God's doing. When I went from middle school to high school, it was just on my schedule." Any particular parts of the world you'd like to focus on?
"Cape Town, South Africa. In a couple of years they're going to be out of water because of the dams that they have. I want to start there because if they have no water, they can't live."
You're a musician as well? What instruments do you play?
"I play piano, I play clarinet, and I play saxophone. I plan on getting a little keyboard so I can keep up here. I like to play classical music but also like to play the hip-hop type music on the piano. But most of the time I'm playing classical because it's just really beautiful to hear." What do you think about playing a 10:30 a.m. game in front of a large group of school children?
"Last year I was committed, then and I saw the story on Instagram. There was a lot of kids and I was thinking that I'd be nervous playing in front of them. But now, I'm not so nervous. I think me and my teammates will be ready. It's a little early but it just brings me back to the AAU days when you had to play games early in the morning."