Much of Danil Zelenkov’s day is spent studying or at practice, which isn’t unusual for a George Washington University student athlete. While proper time management is critical to the academic and athletic success of GW student athletes, international student athletes like Mr. Zelenkov have the added component of performing the balancing act thousands of miles from home.
“I visit the [Nelson and Michele] Carbonell Academic Center quite frequently, if not daily,” said Mr. Zelenkov, a junior from Macedonia who is studying international affairs. “As an international student, there also are resources to use through the [International Services Office]. Knowing they exist erases any fear of not fitting in the school community and the American community at large.”
Mr. Zelenkov, men’s tennis MVP in 2013 and a member of the 2013-14 Atlantic 10 All-Academic Team, carried a 4.0 GPA in the fall 2013 and spring 2014 semesters. He’s one of several hundred high-performing GW student athletes. In May 2014, 15 of the university’s 19 NCAA teams received perfect Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores. The list of the Athletics Academic Dean’s List contained more than 400 names last year.
Of GW’s approximately 450 student athletes, about 12 percent are international. For many of them, like Mr. Zelenkov, English is not their first language.
Egle Jakuciunaite, a junior women’s tennis player from Lithuania, is studying international affairs and economics. She juggles a hectic schedule of practice, weightlifting, classes and studying while holding the spot essentially as the No. 3 singles player on her team. Ms. Jakuciunaite, a member of the fall 2013 and spring 2014 Atlantic 10 Commissioner’s Honor Roll with a 4.0 GPA, said tutoring services and resources in the university writing center and career center were helpful in her transition to GW. University support, she said, was apparent immediately.
“To begin with, the International Colonial Inauguration staff was extremely helpful in introducing us to all available resources at the university and other opportunities in D.C.,” she said. “As a student athlete, I have learned how to manage my time and prioritize certain activities while not wasting time for unnecessary things.”
In the high-profile sport of men’s basketball, a hallmark of the program has been the team’s success with international students. Junior Kevin Larsen from Denmark is part of that storied history. A sociology major, the towering 6-foot-10 presence on the basketball court was the Atlantic 10’s most improved player in 2014. Mr. Larsen averaged 11.4 points and 6.9 rebounds a game for the Colonials last year. Of sustaining high marks—he was named to the fall 2013 Athletic Academic Dean’s List with a GPA over 3.0—in class while exceling in basketball, Mr. Larsen makes it clear. “You can't procrastinate,” he said. “Basketball doesn't last forever. I need something I can fall back on—that's why education is as important as basketball.”
Another junior, women’s squash player Anna Porras, majors in civil engineering while representing GW and her native Colombia in international squash competitions. A member of GW’s spring and fall 2013 Athletic Academic Dean’s List and a two-time College Squash Association Second Team All-American, Ms. Porras squeezes in extra reading time in 45-minute or one-hour gaps in her class and practice schedule. She, like Mr. Zelenkov and other GW student athletes, frequents the Carbonell Academic Center, where she says support resources show that GW is invested in her academic success.
“As an international student, it’s very nice to have people looking after you as you are very far from home,” she said. “Winning is such as rewarding feeling. And there is a similar feeling when you get that ‘A’ you've been striving for. You look back to all your hard work, and it feels like everything is worth it.”
For Mr. Zelenkov, Ms. Jakuciunaite, Mr. Larsen and Ms. Porras, juniors who have picked up a trick or two along the way, GW Athletics’ mantra to create “Champions in competition, the classroom and in the community” is second nature. But what about freshmen like men’s basketball’s Yuta Watanabe and men’s rowing’s Josh Nothnagel, from Japan and Australia, respectively, who are as far from home as any other GW student athletes and trying to navigate a new campus with the demands that come with NCAA competition?
Mr. Watanabe, only the third Japanese-born Division I men’s basketball player in history, carries a 3.83 GPA into final exams next week. Mr. Watanabe took classes in the summer prior to the beginning of his freshman year to ensure he was prepared for the rigors of the academic year and has worked intensively on his English language skills.
"Yuta is learning to stand tall and excel as a student and as an athlete, and I am sure he will make good use of the opportunity one way or another in his future on and off the court," said Shoko Hamano, a professor of Japanese and international relations who has worked closely with Mr. Watanabe since his arrival at GW through the university’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program. That program provides services to GW’s international students, both graduate and undergraduate, for whom English is not their first language.
Mr. Watanabe said that tutors in the academic center have been especially helpful in his transition to college life and life in Washington, D.C. “Time management is something I've learned in the past couple months,” Mr. Watanabe noted. “I try to make a plan and make sure that I do not feel overwhelmed, do a little work at a time.”
GW men’s basketball has a history of academic success among its international student athletes. Of the 13 Atlantic10 men’s basketball players to earn All-Academic Team honors three times in a career, three have been GW international alumni: Nemanja Mikic, Yegor Mescheriakov and Alexander Koul. Meanwhile, fourth-year Coach Mike Lonergan stresses academics first and foremost, as evidenced by his perfect career rate of graduation among his student-athletes.
As for rowing’s Mr. Nothnagel, it’s the support of teammates who have eased his transition. “Older teammates are good in the sense that you can ask them questions and most of the time they have encountered similar issues in the past and are able to provide some guidance,” he said.