At some point in our lives, we all experience changes. These changes may be unexpected, expected, unwanted, or wanted. Regardless of what the scenario may be, we all experience changes throughout the course of our life, and for Camila Ferreira, a dramatic change occurred as she left her home country, Brazil, to play tennis and study abroad here at Ouachita.
Camila Ferreira, a senior kinesiology pre-professional major, has lived the majority of her life in Brazil. She is from the city of Sao Paulo, and she made note that she wasn’t into playing sports for a good portion of her childhood.
“I was never into athletics, I had zero coordination until I started playing tennis; but I always liked sports so I would always watch soccer and volleyball,” Camila said.
In high school, Camila suffered an injury while playing handball that resulted in her not being able to play any sports with impact. While tennis may be the sport Camila eventually chose to play, she also mentioned that she loved volleyball.
“My dream was to be a volleyball player, but I could not jump because of my injury,” Camila said. It wasn’t until she paid her aunt a trip to the hospital when she developed an affection for tennis. Her aunt had just given birth at the time, and her uncle (who was also there) was playing virtual tennis on a PlayStation Portable and insisted that she give it try.
“I started playing on the PlayStation Portable and thought that it was so cool that I decided I was going to play tennis,” Camila said.
When people think of Brazil, nine times out of ten, soccer would be the sport associated with the country. Hardly any would associate tennis with her country, and Camila knew that. She made note that, in fact, tennis is not popular in Brazil.
“It’s not popular at all because it’s expensive. If you want to take lessons, it’s expensive. Buying the tennis rackets and balls is expensive, so it’s a really expensive sport,” Camila said.
Camila didn’t begin playing tennis until she was 15 and had to work extremely hard to develop her skill level before college. When she first started taking tennis lessons, she really didn’t improve in the beginning because she said her coaches weren’t the best and were primarily interested in making money. She then made a switch, and she liked her new coaches because of how considerate they were in making sure she got better while also covering the majority of her expenses for the lessons.
“My coaches back at home were angels because they basically let me play for free,” Camila said.
Camila has always wanted to come to the United Stated ever since she was young.
According to her mother, she would always talk about how she wanted to come to the United States, even if it was for only a day. Camila did make note that she originally had no idea that she could attend a college in the United States and play tennis for that college as well.
At one point, she almost quit playing tennis because she felt it wasn’t getting her anywhere.
“One of my coaches told me that I could play tennis for a university in the U.S and get scholarships. That’s the main reason I kept playing,” Camila said.
The next three years were very stressful for Camila, as she basically had no free time to do anything. She would attend school from 7 a.m-12:45 p.m. and would basically train in tennis for the remainder of the day.
“After school, I would go home, eat something quick, take the bus to the facility, play from 2-8, come home and study. So I basically had no breaks,” Camila said.
The recruiting process for Camila was slightly different than that of an American high school athlete. For Camila, a company called Daqui Pra For a, played a huge role in leading her to Ouachita. This company also helped other foreign student athletes to come to Ouachita.
“Basically what this company does, is you tell them you want to go to the U.S. You tell them your sport, and they help you with your tests (SAT and ACT). Once you [are] done with all of your tests, [they] put you in contact with universities. They’ve been in the market a long time, so they already know a lot of places and universities,” Camila said.
Camila saw Ouachita as the best fit for her, mainly due to the fact that she received good scholarships.
“Because my GPA coming out of high school was really good, they gave me a lot of scholarship money on top of tennis,” Camila said.
After arriving at Ouachita as a freshman, Camila found it difficult adjusting as a student athlete because she really didn’t know English well at the time.
“It’s hard for everybody being a student athlete to keep up with everything, but for me it was even harder because I didn’t know English. I was taking a bunch of English classes while being a student athlete so at the beginning it was really hard,” Camila said. However, Camila made note that she is much more comfortable managing her time as a student athlete due to her knowing the English language better.
Camila also explained some of the cultural differences between the United States and Brazil. One of the differences she mentioned was the way people greet in America compared to Brazil.
“In Brazil, people are warm, and when you greet them, you give them a hug and kiss on the cheek. Here, people shake hands,” Camila said.
The decision to come to the United States was very sudden for Camila.
“My senior year, after taking exams for college here (Brazil) and there (U.S.), one day I decided I’m leaving. That’s my shot, because everybody back home has that dream to leave, but they are still there. They would keep planning and planning, and I knew if I stayed [that] I would get comfortable,” Camila said.
Although she left her family, Camila says that her family is 100 percent supportive of her coming and living in the U.S. Sometimes a change is needed, and for Camila, she knew that coming to the U.S. was that change.
Following graduation, Camila wants to go home for a year to catch up with family while also applying for jobs in the U.S. and in Brazil.
– By Marcellus Hill, Sports Writer
