Expatriates embrace opportunities
Women’s tennis team bursting with international talent
By Scott Pearlstein
Staff Writer 

     We all arrive at DePaul from different places. We bring with us the world—urban or rural. But most important, where we come from shapes how we think and where we want to go. This is the case with the women’s tennis team at DePaul.  Four of its tennis players come from other countries and find themselves in the Windy City.

     “I liked the city and I liked Chicago,” Barbara Fuzesi said. “I came to the U.S. because it was impossible to play tennis in Hungary. In Hungary it’s hard to play tennis and go to school at the same time”.

     The same is true for Kadie Hilpus, originally from Tartu, Estonia.

     “I didn’t have good practice opportunities in that country. I was practicing with men. There was only one girl.”

     Too often that situation brings players like the Hilpus and Fuzesi to the United States where the tennis is widespread and post-college opportunities are a lot better.

     Since Hilpus is commerce major, DePaul was a good choice for her because, as she puts it, DePaul is an “accredited” school.

     Hilpus also likes the opportunities Chicago brings.

     “There are good internship opportunities in the city.  Chicago’s a big business town.”

     But other players arrived here differently. Charlotta Aronsson was attending the University of Alabama when she became interested in DePaul.  Alabama’s tennis program was about to be discontinued and Aronsson was looking to leave Mobile for greener pastures and more tennis.  Even if the tennis program had not dissolved, she still wanted to leave.

     Aronsson looked at other schools besides DePaul, including Louisiana Tech, the University of Kentucky and Boise State. But she chose DePaul because “It was the best academic school of them all.”

     Besides, thinking head coach Mark Ardizzone was a nice guy helped the situation. Ardizzone new someone who worked at Florida State University, and Charlotta knew someone who played there—that’s how they first hooked up.

     Originally from Lingham, Sweden’s fifth largest city, Aronsson experienced “culture shock.” She went from urban cars cruising through streets to cows wandering along in fields. But leaving Mobile had its high and low points. She was able to keep playing tennis, but she had a hard time making friends, and still does at DePaul.

     “I like the team.  I like Chicago, but here I don’t have a lot of friends. Even though I wasn’t happy in Mobile, I had a lot of friends.”

     The same was true of Barbara Fuzesi.  She ended up transferring from Campbell (North Carolina) University to DePaul.  She had been recruited by DePaul before Ardizzone was named women’s head coach, but the coach at that time had not really made an effort to get Fuzesi. Besides, the coach told Fuzesi that not being able to speak English was a problem. So she ended up at Campbell and as she puts it, “in the middle of nowhere.”

     So in order to get out of nowhere, she came to DePaul.  She came here because she knew someone from the Saint Louis University who also knew Ardizzone.  This connection then got her to Chicago and on DePaul’s tennis team. And she is content with the move: “For sure, much better here.  There are more opportunities here and much more to do.”

     Surprisingly enough it was also Fuzesi who got Szilvia Keleman to come to DePaul. She and Szilvia had played in the same club back in Budapest, Hungary. In fact, it was a club where Fuzesi’s father coaches.

     “She did all the work recruiting Keleman,” Ardizzone said. “International students are hard to get.”  

     Frankly, he makes it look easy.