SPORTS SCHOLARSHIPS PART 1
Sporting opportunities beyond Diocesan are continuing to grow and over the past few years we have seen an increasing number of our sporting students offered scholarships to some very prestigious universities in America. This is a great opportunity and an amazing experience, so we have reached out to several of our Old Girls to see how they have found the past few years Studying overseas. If you have been contacted by any universities and feel this is something you would like to explore, please feel free to contact the Careers Development Centre or the Sports Department for further advice and assistance. Part 2 of this feature will appear in the November issue of Dio Today.
Annabelle Paterson Annabelle left Dio at the end of 2016 and is currently on a swimming scholarship at Harvard University, Massachusetts. What inspired you most to study overseas? In New Zealand it is very difficult to study at a high level and continue 66
DIO TODAY
swimming competitively. I wanted to do both, and an American university provided this opportunity for me. The universities in the US combine sport and study, and work together with sport to help student athletes achieve in the classroom and in the sporting arena. In New Zealand, sport and study are separate and don’t work together cohesively. In America, I compete for Harvard and my coaches work with me
and my professors, to work out a plan to achieve my academic and sporting goals. Also, in America, college swimming has turned swimming into a team sport, unlike in New Zealand where swimming is solely individual. I now swim for something bigger than myself – I swim for my team and my school and we collectively compete against other universities. This adds another layer to the sport and more motivation to do my best.
