National Volleyball Champ Takes Her Game Abroad
Stuart, FL – December 2, 2010 - There’s no doubt about it: Ariel Chandler’s got game. After the 14-year-old volleyball phenom from Stuart and her partner Lauren Galinis of Delray Beach won the girls' U14 National division at the USA Beach Junior Tour Championships on Fort Lauderdale Beach this past August, Chandler didn’t go to Disneyland—she went to Perugia, Italy to train with top-level coaches, immerse herself in a foreign culture and learn a brand new language to boot.
“We live in a competitive, global society,” says Joe Coito, president of Travel Sport Camp (travelsportcamp.com), the sport-specific study abroad program Chandler’s family chose for her. “It’s no longer enough for students to get a 4.0 grade point average and work on the yearbook. The students who really stand out to college admissions directors are the ones who make getting an exceptional, well-rounded education a priority.”
Indeed, Chandler’s experience in Perugia is one to which few American students could relate. For starters, she lives at the Istituto Sant’Antonio in Perugia (managed by the Franciscan Sisters of the Child of Jesus) and studies at the prestigious Liceo Linguistico “A. Pieralli”. Each weekday she attends three to four hours of Italian language instruction, completes online study requirements in order to stay on track to graduate with her classmates when she returns to the US, and spends another several hours training in her sport. Organized day trips to Rome, Siena and Florence help round out the cultural experience.
Study abroad may seem like an extravagance few can afford in the current economy, but Chandler’s mom Dianne Chandler insists that the TSC price tag isn’t much more than the family would have spent traveling around the US to attend Ariel’s numerous competitions. “This has been an amazing experience for Ariel,” her mother says. “We can already see that living on her own in a foreign country has made her more confident and independent. This program is an excellent way to help her prepare for college and beyond.”
Chandler already has made strides toward her dream of pursuing a pro-volleyball career. In addition to having a national championship under her belt, she was named Club Indoor MVP for her club team, the Volleyball Institute of Palm Beach (VIP; vipfl.webs.com). For two years running she was named MVP at St. Vincent Ferrer School in Delray, and was given the Florida 2010 Coaches All Star Camper Award by the University of Florida, Gainesville.
For more information about Travel Sport Camp please contact Joe Coito at jcoito@travelsportcamp.com or
(888) 511-2267 (toll free). To arrange an interview with Ariel Chandler please email Dianne Chandler in Historic Downtown Stuart at Dianne@iOnStuart.com
