- August 2016
Personal Statement
My name is Salamasina Te’i and I am Samoan. I first started playing tennis when I was 11 years old and I am now a Senior at Kahuku High School on Oahu, Hawaii, where my family now lives. My mom was my first tennis teacher then she put me into a "Play to Learn” tennis program. From there, I attended a couple of tennis camps and then joined my high school tennis team. I quickly developed a strong liking for tennis that has turned into a passion and love for the game. I decided that if I worked hard and focused on continuous improvement, as my grandfather would always tell me, I could do well and possibly gain a scholarship to attend college. Being a young Samoan female, measuring at 5'8 and weighing 170 lbs, people would immediately assume that I am a basketball, volleyball, or even a rugby player. No one expected that I would be a tennis player, as there aren’t many Polynesian girls that play this sport. Knowing this makes me even more proud to be not only a tennis player but a Samoan tennis player.
My academic goals in high school are to take honors and AP classes, and earn a GPA of 4.0 throughout the rest of my high school years. I would also like to play in as many tennis tournaments as I am able, join a tennis club and perform volunteer service at a hospital to gain experience in the field of medicine. My long-term goal is to earn a tennis scholarship as well as an academic scholarship, so that I may attend college and pursue a degree in either Medicine or Criminal Justice, and this would be my vehicle to returning home to American Samoa and work for the government where I can give back to my people.
In my culture, being respectful, having integrity and a strong work ethic is very important; and so it is important to my family and me. Therefore, everything I do in life, I try to do with the cultural values that I was raised with. With regards to tennis, my academics and in my interactions with others, I will always strive to be respectful, be committed, and work my hardest to always improve and to do my best to achieve the goals I set for myself. I have had unending support from family and friends, and received coaching from several wonderful coaches throughout my tennis journey. All of this has helped to shape me as a young Samoan female, as well as refine my tennis skills, improve my mental game and increase my physical fitness. I am grateful to them for their hard work and dedication to my personal development and instruction and in turn will try to honor all they’ve done for me by working hard, doing my best and maintaining the respect and humility that grounds me.
Playing tennis has helped me to put into practice my values as well as improve certain things about myself. When I train, I commit to my training schedule and I give it my 100 percent. When I compete, I try to have a balance between being humble on the court and having confidence in my game. And because I strongly believe that it’s how you play the game, whatever the outcome is in a competition, I try always to win with humility and lose with grace. As I will do in life, I will also do with tennis…that once I step onto the court, I always try to perform my best in all aspects of the game, because not only am I representing myself, but I'm also representing my coaches, my school, my family, and my culture.
