#i2amru (I, Too, Am Reinhardt) Volume 1 Number 1 | Page 48

Have you ever wondered what
makes sports in the United
States different from those of
other countries? Why do foreign athletes come to study and
play at Reinhardt, as opposed
to other American schools, and
what kinds of adjustments do
they have to make? What are
some ways that Reinhardt can
improve this cultural transition
for international athletes?
Throughout the years, Reinhardt University has worked to
increase its international enrollment, and a primary channel
for doing so has been through
athletics. This article provides a
voice to some international student athletes in hopes of finding
ways to improve the campus’s
international student program
as well as ways to accommodate
the foreign athlete within the
Reinhardt community.

Background
of the
Athletes
Radville Autukaite, a basketball
player at Reinhardt, was born
Vilnius, Lithuania, in Eastern
Europe. Autukaite came to the
United States her junior year in
high school, where she attended
the Holderness boarding school
in Plymouth, New Hampshire.

48

After graduating, she received a
basketball scholarship to Virginia
Intermont University in Bristol,
Virginia, which closed in the
spring of 2014.
“Reinhardt wasn’t my first choice,”
Autukaite admits. “After Virginia
Intermont closed down, I had to
find a place to go that would help
pay for me to go to school, and
Reinhardt was the best option for
me.”
When asked her main reason for
coming to Reinhardt, or to the
United States in general, she replies jokingly, “I’ve done whatever
it took not to break my pocket,
but in all reality, I was seeking new
opportunities and challenges.”
Nicolas Duarte, a tennis player
from Bogotá, Colombia, came to
the United States his freshman
year of college. When explaining
what made him choose Reinhardt,
Duarte replies, “One reason [is
because] the universities in my
county do not support athletes
as much as they do in the United
States.”
“The level of study in Colombia is
extremely hard,” he remarks, “an @