May 21, 2010
As final exams came to a close on May 6, Vanderbilt students headed their separate directions for the summer. Some headed home, others to internships and a few traveled overseas. Among the Vanderbilt students who made the trek overseas are women’s basketball players Angela Puleo and Jence Rhoads.
Since May 8, Puleo and Rhoads have been in Greece taking a three-credit hour course called “Uncovering Greek Religion: Cults, Sanctuaries & Festivals in the Ancient World.”
Puleo, who will be a junior for the Commodores next season after sitting out last year following her transfer from Georgia, and Rhoads, a rising senior, are two of 18 Vanderbilt students taking the course in Greece, which runs through June 4.
“It is hard to put into words how great my trip has been to Greece thus far,” Puleo wrote in an e-mail from Greece. “The people are amazing. We have traveled to so many different places and have only been here 11 days so far.”
Among the places the two have visited is the Acropolis in Athens, which is the highest point in the city, and includes the Parthenon and Athena’s sanctuaries among other attractions. The two also spent one of their free days touring Santorini Island, which was formed by one of the largest volcanic eruptions ever recorded.
“Just to imagine the different people walking the same steps that we took that day is very surreal,” Puleo said of the trip to the Acropolis. “Most of the sites we go to, I have to keep telling myself that the things we are seeing are actually real.”
The experience in Greece has been one that the two will remember and cherish forever, but it’s an experience the two were not sure would be possible, given their busy training schedule during the summer. However, instead of being turned down, the two were encouraged by the coaching staff to take advantage of the opportunity.
“Jence and I were worried that we wouldn’t be able to work out the three weeks we were here, and would get behind,” Puleo said. “The coaches have been so supportive and have encouraged us to take advantage of this opportunity. With the coaches’ approval, the decision was much easier to make. Surprisingly enough, there have been opportunities to work out and actually play some basketball in Greece.”
While finding time to study abroad is a difficult task for a student-athlete, it is certainly possible, especially at Vanderbilt. Each year a handful of student-athletes are given an opportunity to immerse themselves in a foreign culture and study overseas. Last year, football players Gaston Miller and Joel Caldwell took advantage of the same opportunity as Rhoads and Puleo to study abroad in Greece.
For Puleo, the opportunity to study abroad has been more than she could have imagined … and she isn’t even halfway done. It’s been an experience she will never forget, and one that has helped shape her future.
“I have always wanted to go abroad but have never really had the chance because of basketball,” Puleo said. “When I got to college, I saw all the study abroad programs and I immediately knew that would be something I would try to do. I hope to do something like this again in the future. After I am done with college, hopefully I will be able to either play overseas or travel for a while before embarking on the real world.”
