TEMPLE WOMEN'S TENNIS NEWSLETTER

Can you just bring us up to date on your life today?

"Yeah, so I'm currently living in New York City with my boyfriend. I've been here for about 4 years now. I work at Gallup Capital in Strategic Accounting and Finance. After I graduated from Temple University, I worked at a commercial real estate company named Post Brothers. I was there for about a year, and then I decided to get my master's degree in data science while I was studying. I was working in consulting, which made me move to New York. So, that's been about 4 years now, I guess, total, so that's where I'm at. I have a little dog named Cabot, who is a year and a half old."

I'm curious how your experiences at Temple have kind of shaped your life, both personally and professionally?

"I think, in general, being a student athlete, you kind of have to learn a lot of really important skills, like time management, prioritizing tasks, meeting deadlines, you know, you don't have a lot of time. throughout the day, so you have practice, you have lift, conditioning, and then you have class, you have to get your homework done. I thought Resnick Center was really helpful for me to, you know, go get my homework done between practice, or, like, if I'm waiting for a class. Yeah, I think overall, it definitely gave me a lot of, like, essential skills for professional life.I thought Temple University, like, I went to Fox School of Business, they had a lot of opportunities, you know, how to polish your resume, they had a lot of career fairs where you go network. I think it's also important to build a relationship with professors, because I've personally reached out to a few of mine for referrals when I had my job interview, so overall, my experience was great.I learned a lot about both, tennis as well. You work with a lot of different personalities, so it prepares you for your professional life after school. "

Do you have specific favorite on-court memories, or specific favorite off-the-court memories that come to mind when you think about Temple?

"I think one of my favorite things was playing doubles with Cecila. I don't know if you've met her, Cecilia Castelli, we've played a lot of doubles together, and we've always had so much fun together, so just playing with her is one of my favorite memories. Off the court I was personally very close with the team and the men's team as well, so we spent a lot of time off-court with them as well. I think just being in the moment, spending a lot of time with them, like, traveling was one of my favorite things, being in the bus with everyone, or getting team dinners, just overall spending time together outside of court was one of my favorite moments, and taking a lot of pictures, and going back it's great to reminisce about those moments."

Have you been able to stay in touch with any of your former teammates or coaches? I know there's been a coaching change and for you, you're a more recent graduate, but just to the current crop of players, any advice for them on how to maintain those relationships when graduating.

"I think, in general with teammates, you form a different relationship than a friendship. I feel like it's, like, the connection is deeper, so, I definitely see them when they're visiting New York. We make sure to see each other. I reach out to them, or they reach out to me prior to them, you know, visiting. I make time for them, because it's really important, and even though I don't see them as much, our connection is always there.Some of them are back in different countries. I do, you know, stay in touch with them through social media, or just overall, once in a while, I check in. Same with the coaches as well. See how they're doing around holiday time, reach out."

Do you still follow professional tennis today? Do you have any favorite players?

"I wouldn't say, like, I'm…keeping up in terms of, I don't follow every single tournament that they play, but I definitely watch all the Grand Slams. My current favorite player is Carlos Alcaraz. I like Sinner. I like watching Sinner. Sinner's good. In terms of Turkish…tennis players, there's one called Zeynep Sönmez. I think she's doing very good. I follow her, it's a big name for Turkey. She's been good to see for Turkey. Yeah, it's a part of me. I don't know if you know Mark Wallner, he's currently playing professionally, and he actually did play in the US Open doubles last year. Unfortunately, I wasn't around to see him. Hopefully this year, I'm gonna make some time to, you know, go watch him play as well. I'm very proud of him. "

Any lessons that you would relay to current players? I mean, you've talked about it a little bit, but anything specific that you want to tell to players today that are currently playing at Temple?

"I think everyone probably says this, but just being in the moment and not rushing anything, because time flies. Like, one thing everyone told me when I was a freshman coming in, everyone said, oh, you're gonna be a senior in no time, and I'm like, no, I have, like, 3 more years, what are you talking about? And then I… you know, like, a month later, I'm like, wow, I'm graduating. So, I think, for me, it's just making sure that you're spending a lot of time with friends and teammates, and just enjoying the moment, because it goes by really fast. Also, in terms of, like, professional…side of things, making sure, you know, go to career fairs, get the experience of talking to a recruiter from a talent management team, from a company, like, get their information, reach out to them for coffee chats. I think it really helped me to build a lot of connections, and networking was very helpful before I started interviewing for any professional jobs, because you get the experience, and you just…become more comfortable talking to new people and your experience overall, and really helps with the professional process once you're graduating."