One of the best parts of Sport Changes Life and the Victory Scholar program for me is the ability to get a masters degree. I never thought I would be able to get a scholarship that wasn’t through a company I was working for, but that all changed once I was selected as a Victory Scholar. On top of that, I was lucky enough to get placed at NUI Galway, a beautiful and well regarded school, and get into the international management program.
Studying abroad has been an eye-opening experience and I one that I’m certainly grateful for. My class is extremely diverse with students from Ireland, Germany, India, China, Italy, and the United States. In undergrad, when cultural differences were discussed there was typically a singular voice or opinion. Now, instead of reading about Chinese culture, one of my classmates can share how it actually is. One of the first activities we did as a class was break into groups and write down stereotypes about an assigned country. It was definitely an experience to see how the rest of the world thinks about the United States and also to address some of the assumptions about all countries.
We do have a few assessments and tests, but the majority of our work is done through group projects. Although these have been hit-and-miss at times, they do a good job of preparing the class for the real world where working with teams and personalities of all sorts will be normal. I also enjoy the fact that as postgraduates we’re given more freedom to research topics of interest to us and do research on our own.
As you might expect, it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. There was certainly a period of adjustment for me. The grading scale is completely different here and a 70 is good. There is a lot more reading and work done outside of the classroom than in and managing coaching and playing commitments usually results in late nights and me constantly apologizing to my group about my availability to meet.
However, I’m grateful for the challenge and growth that will come out of it. Even though I don’t spend as much time with my classmates as I would like because of basketball and coaching, they are quite the group. Interesting, intelligent, hilarious, helpful, and unique are a few words that come to mind. Every day in the program is an adventure of some kind, like when we went to an outdoor laser tag course (Pictured above). I’m looking forward to continuing the program and everything that comes with it these next few months.
