Traveling more than 4,500 miles away from home, Elena Sinde Romero came to America with two goals in mind.
Born and raised in La Coruña, Spain, Romero packed up her bags and came to America for the first time in August 2015 to pursue her goals as a student-athlete; she did not know English.
“At [Texas] Wesleyan I found a very welcoming coach with a very good team that had a huge potential and I really liked the idea of coming and playing golf,” said Romero. “And do my best for the team, for myself as a student and get a degree.”
Romero had no idea where she wanted to go for college but knew she wanted to receive a degree and play golf at the collegiate level.
She was offered many opportunities at other universities to play golf, but found herself drawn to what Wesleyan has to offer.
“I really liked the coach actually, I talked to him for a little bit and he made me feel like I was going to be OK at this school,” she said. “I looked up the
programs as well and the business program was good, too.”
When she was in high school, Romero wanted to study architecture. Wesleyan does not have an architecture program; because she was excited
about Wesleyan’s golf program, she decided to change her major to business marketing and management.
Unsure whether to enter the job world or continue her education after graduation, she hopes to further her love for sports after graduation in May.
“I want to relate my major to sports so I’m looking forward to get my master’s,” she said. “The main idea is to end up getting my master’s on
sports management where I can do business and organize events that have something to do with sports.”
Romero has been accepted into the German Sport University Cologne; this is the largest sports university in Europe. She will focus her studies on fields in sports.
The university “offers the graduate program I’m looking for is called Olympic Studies and it basically teaches me about big events and organizations,” she said. “It will last for two years.”
In 2015, Romero’s first year at Wesleyan she earned herself the SAC Freshman of the Year title, according to ramsports.net. She also finished third overall in this year’s Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament and was named to the all-tournament team for the second year in a row.
Her experience at Wesleyan these past four years has helped her self-growth and taught her different cultures, as well as and the importance of team camaraderie.
“It taught me to appreciate what I have back at home and what I have here and the people that has helped me all throughout the four years,” she said.
