Ukrainians Anna Okolot and Juliai Prokopyshyn appreciate the opportunity to attend Upper Iowa University on tennis scholarships. The girls, just 17 and 18, respectively, say there is more opportunity for them here, but they also love and are very proud of their home country. (Jerry Wadian)
Game, Set, Match: UIU
Janell Bradley
Contributing Writer
Two of the 10 athletes that make up Upper Iowa University's women's tennis team this year have come to Fayette from Ukraine.
A mini United Nations, the squad also includes young women from Israel, Netherlands, and Japan.
Freshmen Yuliya Prokopshyn and Ganna Okolot are thrilled to be enrolled at UIU this year on tennis scholarships. Although they didn't know one another before, the girls have the common thread of speaking Ukrainian (Ganna also speaks Russian) and being part of a squad that treats one another like family, they say.
Yuliya, or "Julia" as she is known on campus, comes to Iowa from Lviv, Ukraine, a very historic community just an hour from the country's west border with Poland. Her father is a lawyer. Julia is studying public administration at UIU and has a minor in pre-law. She intends to continue her education to earn a master's degree in the U.S., as well.