International student-athletes find community at Temple
Some international athletes have decided to come to Temple because of the culture of their teams and Philadelphia's diversity as the main factors.
By Mannuel Victor
When Temple women’s tennis player Thamara Kawaratani graduated high school, she was met with a complex decision.
Kawaratani had been playing tennis since she was 10 years old in Australia and competed around the world, across Europe and Asia. Her performance in tournaments had American college recruits scouting her, hopeful that she would join them in the United States.
It was a big commitment, but Kawaratani eventually came to a decision.
“I felt like coming [to get] college and grad experience,” Kawaratani said. “I decided to email coaches. Steve [Mauro], our old coach here, I emailed him as well, set up a call with him and he was really nice. It was the warm environment that pulled me to [Temple].”
Since joining Temple, Kawaratani has a 21-17 singles record across her first two seasons with the Owls and formed a doubles partnership with Marianthi Christoforidou, a fellow international student-athlete from Greece.
They are not the only ones to join Temple from overseas.
Temple has 84 international student-athletes from 39 different countries, including the United Kingdom, Japan and Turkey.
Temple men’s tennis player Erden Er hails from the latter, but Temple was not his first stop in the States.
Er previously played at Hampton University during his freshman year, where he had a 10-6 singles record and an 11-8 doubles record.
While debating what to do in the future, Er decided to transfer to Temple and cited the culture of the team and city as the main influencers.
“I liked the facilities and the team culture, [the] chemistry was really nice,” Er said. “I decided to come to Temple, and the city life is really nice as well.”
The sports culture in Philadelphia shocked Er. In Turkey, playing tennis is about the individual and though he may have found himself working with other players, it was not enough to shake off the self-reliant side of tennis.
Working at Temple with his teammates, with whom he said he felt comfortable, made tennis feel like a “team sport.”
Er said there may be a specific reason.
“They are, not all of them, but the majority of them are international students, too,” he explained.
Kawaratani echoed the same sentiment.
“I’ve had really great people around me,” Kawaratani said. “They’re very good people…most of them are actually alone, too.”
Out of nine players on the women’s tennis team, eight of them are international athletes. The men’s tennis team has a similar ratio, with seven out of nine athletes being international.
“But at the end of the day,” Kawaratani said, “when you first come, you’re alone. You’ve got to deal with situations alone. We’re very lucky to be in a team because we can rely on each other.”
And it’s worth making the leap, Kawaratani said.
“If [more international students] are thinking about coming, I would say, just do it,” Kawaratani said. “Worst case, you learn something about yourself, and best case, you meet some amazing people. It will be a great overall experience one way or the other.”
Front page photo by Elita Odartei, Temple Athletics
