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What more could we expect from 2020? COVID-19 has not only dramatically affected the entire world but deeply changed how education is being carried out this year. We are in a period in time in which we are socially distancing from one another and are having to engage through online learning, which is new to most. This was not the expectation for students at any level, but especially international athletes.  

As if school has not already been hard enough, imagine being an international student.

Rafael Goncalves Correa Da Silva, who is a student athlete at Grand View University who plays on the tennis team, has to stay in his home country of Brazil for the remainder of the semester. Another student athlete that was affected by the pandemic is Diego Leite, who is from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Leite is a soccer player at GV who just returned to campus from Mexico after leaving Brazil.    

  Although most students have struggled to adapt to college life during COVID, the struggle has been even more difficult for international students. 

“I know a lot of people who are going through the same thing I was and (are) stuck in their country and cannot come back, but they still want to come back,” Leite said.

Since the pandemic hit the U.S. hard in March, GV has continued conducting learning online through Zoom. Da Silva said this semester has affected him and has made him change his approach to learning. The time zone that he is in has affected him because he has to watch most of his classes after the Zoom call. Once the professor is done with the class recording, they upload the recording to Blackboard. Also, the professors work along with Da Silva and email him.

 Leite’s situation was almost as hard as Da Silva with online schooling. “It was a little bit weird in the beginning to be honest because I didn’t know if I was going to come back or not.” Leite said. “The borders were going to close because of all the cases in Brazil and I had to go to Mexico for two weeks. I didn’t have the money to do that, and I thought I wasn’t going to come back. The online classes were a little different and harder to follow up with the class (as well as) to focus and participate in class. Because when you are in person, in a class, it is much easier to raise your hand and start talking to the professor, but sometimes when you are at home, you just forget that the class is going on.”   

Da Silva and Leite were able to receive  help from GV with the money they recieved in tuition refunds as well as from their meal plans. Goncalves Correa Da Silva said that the tennis coach keeps in contact with him daily by asking him questions such as if he is practicing.  

Da Silva said that his coach not only stayed in contact with him but also with the entire team, which is all international students. 

“The coach is helping the best way he can with scholarship money,” Da Silva said.

In Leite’s case, the coach was able to help him find a way back to Des Moines.

“My coach gave me a call, and he was willing to help me come back to the U.S. by traveling from Brazil through Mexico,” Leite said. “He was calling me all the time and making sure that my family was safe. He talked to my family to find a solution. The budget he had for the soccer team helped me come back.”

GV helped Leite and supported him through his journey back to the U.S. If it wasn’t for GV’s help, Leite wouldn’t have been able to come back.

“My love for soccer made me come back here to the U.S.,” he said. “I could’ve taken the classes online. It was more about soccer because if I wasn’t there I would miss my last season and I don’t think I would’ve been able to be (given) another chance to play ever again.”  

 For those who could not make it, imagine the countless hours that they must have endured in training, pushing their bodies to an extreme limit, just to find out that they can’t compete or even be with their teammates.