For most college freshmen, it is a big enough adjustment to be on your own in a new place, let alone making the transitition in a new country as well. This year the women's Penn State gymnastics team has three new athletes who are former members of the Canadian team. They all arrived in August to spend four years as residents of Happy Valley.
     They all said in unison, "I love Penn State."
     "I think it is a privilege," Lisa Campagnolo proudly said. "I think people are excited about Penn State recruiting from outside the country. People are always excited when they hear we are from another country. It gives the team some diversity."
     "It wasn't much of a decision for us to come to Penn State," Katie Rowland said.
     "We lost all the connections with the Canadian team as soon as we signed with the university, but it is well worth it to come to a top school like Penn State and get your education paid for," Campagnolo said.
     Katie McAvoy said it wasn't a big decision to go this far from home, she is from Saskatchewan, Canada. "I always knew I wanted to come to the United States to go to college." Penn State was her first and last recruiting trip. "I absolutely fell in love with it right away."
     Rowland and Campagnolo feel close to home. They are both about a six or seven hour drive from Penn State, both from Ontario, Canada. They usually make it home for all of the American and Canadian holidays. Last semester it worked out to be almost once a month. McAvoy, on the other hand, doesn't make it home as much. She is about another 24 hours from Rowland and Campagnolo in Canada. She has to fly home and it takes her about the same amount of time in the air that it does them to drive.
     For these freshmen it isn't the new country that is a big adjustment, you will be surprised to find out that it is what most freshmen struggle with when they first come to school--becoming independent.
     "Living by yourself, we are like all the other freshmen, we have to do our own laundry. It's an adjustment to live on your own, but not much different than other freshmen, just more responsibilities (like training and working out with the team)," Campagnolo explained. "It's not like you're in a different country, we're at college."
     The style of training and the way they work together as a team, they all agree, is what has changed the most.
     "The training is different, it is more team-oriented," McAvoy said. "Before we couldn't have music, we couldn't talk, you couldn't sit down. We get more support from our teammates and coaches, we feel like we're all friends, even the coaches."
     "It was more individual before," Campagnolo said. "This type of setting gives you more motivation to do your best all the time, each day you're trying to make the lineup."
     Though they all admit they would not have gotten to this point alone.
     "Our parents have done a lot for us," Campagnolo explains. "They support me after a tough day at the gym, but here the coaches and the team do that for you. Here it is like a family away from home. We do everything together."
     McAvoy says she looks up to everyone here at the gym. She is the youngest.
     "The seniors do motivational plans for us," McAvoy said. "They have so much to do for the team and they make sure we have everything. But it really helps out my parents a great deal. They never would have been able to afford to send me here to get a good education.""
     To Rowland it is more a combination of both parents and teammates.
     "After being in the sport for 11 years, my parents would drive an hour everyday to take me to practice. Here we rely on our teammates and roommates for support after a hard day."
     "Our parents really had to sacrifice a lot to help us maintain this elite level," said Campagnolo. "And now those sacrifices are well worth it."
     So what is in store for these ladies in the future after graduation four years from now.
     "It's going to be a tough decision on whether to stay here or go back to Canada. I think it depends on where I can find the best job," said Campagnolo. "It's not like we are that far from home." She hopes to be a sports therapist some day.
     "I would love to train dolphins, but I don't want to be a marine biologist," McAvoy said joking around. She just wants to play with and feed the dolphins.
     "But seriously I would like to be a sports commentator or something in broadcasting," McAvoy said.
     Rowland plans to someday, become an elementary school teacher. But for now all the girls are DUS majors so they are keeping their options open.