Katarina Stefanovic '16 Recruiting Profile

     A breeze brushes against my skin. Despite the chilly temperatures, neither my mind nor my body react. There are more vital matters before me. I exhaled, bracing my hands against my racquet and realizing this was a moment that fulfilled my childhood dream. I glanced over my shoulder and saw the familiar score board. “7-5.” My attention shifted to my teammates and friends in the stands. “I did it” I exclaimed with a feeling of joy rushing through my body. I had won the deciding match that put my team into the final round of the C.I.F. Championship.
     There is a feeling of sheer happiness and exhilaration when you accomplish a significant goal. As I stood on the hard court amongst my coach, family, and friends, I reflected on my past. I was born in Serbia in 1998 many years before I held my first tennis racquet. In hindsight, my passion for athletics, competition, and more specifically tennis was shaped and influenced by my early childhood experiences.
     My family and I fled Serbia amidst NATO bombings and immigrated to the United States in 2000, seeking to exchange a past life cluttered with war and uncertainty for a future filled with economy prosperity, social equality, and familial stability. My family and I felt the realities associated with the immigrating to a foreign country. We worked hard to find our way, assimilate into a new culture, while striving to accomplish our dreams and aspirations in a place vastly different than our native country.
     My assimilation to American culture, the English language, making friends, and building long lasting relationships was relatively unobstructed. Yet, growing up, I always longed to reconnect with my Serbian culture and heritage. Although I considered myself undoubtedly American, there was always a part of me that dreamt what my native country encompassed. As years whisked by, I searched for ways to connect with my past. Unsurprisingly, in tennis, I finally found an outlet to do so.
     By the age of ten, I had acquired a passion for all types of sports - rather atypical for a girl my age. I feasted on soccer, a sport my father excelled in until the conclusion of college, and relished in all others. While girls my age took after school trips to the mall I opted for running, basketball, skating, and most importantly, tennis. I began to love them each wholeheartedly after the first time I felt the thrill of competition. Yet, it was tennis that uniquely captured my attention and allowed me to intimately connect with my birth country.
     At that time, several Serbian woman tennis players were dominating the WTA - Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic. In each, I idealistically saw a piece of myself. Both were raised in Serbia as NATO bombs reigned down on their cities; both had tremendous strength of character; and both had an unyielding passion for tennis. Reading about their rise to the top of the tennis world despite the obstacles they were required to overcome captured my imagination and provided me fuel for my own aspirations in tennis. Thereafter, I began to relish the opportunity to compete and improve my talents on the hard court. Every waking moment in which I was not sleeping or studying was dedicated to improving my game. With the support of my family, friends, and community, I practiced relentlessly and began competing in tournaments seemingly every weekend, many times against opponents who were much older than me.
     As I commenced my high school experience at Beverly Hills High School, I was proudly selected to the varsity team as a freshman, in which I played number one and number two singles throughout. This year, I am once again the number one singles player for our team and have been successful in five of six matches. However, I do not believe that success is defined simply by wins and losses. I feel my high school tenure has been successful because I have worked vigorously to act as a leader who my teammates can depend upon for advice regarding not only tennis techniques and strategies, but also on academics and community involvement. More than anything, I loved the camaraderie, encouragement and overall atmosphere of our team.
     Although tennis over the past ten years has allowed me to reconnect with my Serbian culture and provided an outlet for my creativity and thirst for competition, its has also helped me grow personally. Tennis is challenging not only athletically, technically, strategically, and tactically, but also mentally. The individualistic nature of this sport requires players to persist and prevail through self-support. Given this quality, as a player, I have learned to dig deep into myself and find ways to control my emotions, battle my doubts, and find solutions to the problems presented by each and every opponent. Most of all, the hard court has offered me a place to learn a great deal about myself. That's why I love tennis.
     On the hard court, I focus on the small steps that seemingly provide the greatest rewards. I continue to move forward, step-by-step, improving my technique, understanding of the game, tactics, and metal stamina. Yet, tennis has also helped me recognize that the more nuanced aspects of any undertaking are what matter most. Academically, I work hard to ensure that I approach every learning opportunity with an open mind. I listen attentively to teachers and faculty, because tennis has taught me to rely on others’ experience and knowledge to further my own success.
Yet, as I have transitioned into my latter teenage years, I have, much to my own surprise, developed many interests even outside the realm of tennis. I have acquired a passion for history and politics after learning more about the Serbian war. I am fascinated with the intricacies of science and art. Yet, my primary interests lie in business, technology, predictive analytics, and data science. After my tennis playing days fizzle to an end, I envision pursuing a career in one of these fields because of their boundless promise and the endless source of potential they offer society. I am confident that pursuing my higher education at an esteemed undergraduate program will grant me the professional abilities and academic insights needed to thrive in my future endeavors.
     Ultimately, the leadership abilities, persistence, strength of character, and resiliency I have acquired through my tennis experiences have allowed me to blossom into a person who can confidently navigate past any obstacle. I believe the abilities I have developed on the court and the insights I have acquired through my academics will allow me to contribute not only as a member of your collegiate tennis team, but also as a student. I truly look forward to making a lasting and distinctive contribution to my new team, coaches, faculty, and fellow classmates. See you in practice!