'It's an incredible experience'

For Central Michigan freshman field hockey player Pleun Van Gent, obtaining a visa to come and play her sport in the United States wasn’t easy.

 

Van Gent was unable to schedule a visa interview in her home country of the Netherlands. Instead, she was forced to travel into a different country to obtain one.

 

“I wasn’t able to get one in Amsterdam because it is hard to schedule an appointment there,” Van Gent said. “The embassy in Amsterdam is always busy. And there was also a stop put on making visa appointments in general due to the rules of Trump. When the stop was gone, I had to schedule one in Frankfurt (Germany) because there were already no appointments available in the embassy in Amsterdam.”

 

There are currently 22 international student-athletes at Central Michigan University representing nine different sports and eight different countries. Those countries include England, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Austria, Argentina, Canada, India and Spain.

 

The process of getting a visa is just one of the many things international student-athletes face when coming over to America to go to school and play their sports. Athletes also have to deal with the language barrier and cultural differences, all while being far away from home.