Ann-Charlott "Lotta" Jurlander
Malmo, Sweden
Lotta Jurlander boarded a plane in Sweden on Thursday, August 14th, 2008 and landed in America eight hours later. This flight was significant because it was the last leg of a long journey.
Lotta is a typical Swedish teen in every way, except that she has extraordinary tennis ability which set her apart from her peers. Tennis was the easy part for Lotta. She was a standout in her club, Fair Play TK Girls, on both the 21 Team 1 and 18 Team 1. Lotta also attended Procivitas Private Gymnasium High School, a school with a curriculum designed specifically for rising student-athletes.
Recruiting was a little harder for Lotta as she had never been to the United States before and most American coaches had never seen her play. Her NCSA video was a tremendous help; now coaches could get an idea of Lotta’s level of play. But, like any international student who dreams of college in America, Lotta wanted to go to school in California. And like most American student-athletes know, if you are not from California, playing there is difficult. If you aren’t from the United States though, playing tennis in California is extremely difficult.
Lotta was contacted by Hope International University, located in Fullerton, CA. Hope International is a small NAIA school with a Church of Christ affiliation, but it isn’t too small and it isn’t too religion-dominated, and it ended up being a perfect fit for Lotta.
The hardest part for Lotta was that all of this recruiting just started happening at the end of this spring, so by the time she was all slated to go to Hope, it left little time for paperwork, visas, grades translation, trips to the embassy, etc. These are minor details of course, but the ones that determined Lotta’s arrival in The States this August. Finally everything worked out and Lotta was able to leave that Thursday, August 14th.
Now her life as a Swede in Los Angeles begins.
