North Texan Magazine - Soccer Alumni (Kelsey Perlman)

[UNTDude]

Great Article in the new issue of the North Texan Alumi Magazine about last years soccer captain Kelsey Perlman. Really shows how a great university, university programs and UNT athletics can pave a way to success!

Link: http://issuu.com/uni...thtexanfall2012 or http://northtexan.unt.edu/content/diplomacy-specialist

Diplomacy Specialist

The U.S. Embassy in Paris had the perfect job for Kelsey Perlman ('12).

The embassy was looking for a French-speaking female athlete to serve as a sports diplomacy specialist — a job that required touring the country to promote gender equality and the benefits of sports for professional success.

Perlman, who majored in international studies and French and served as captain of the Mean Green women's soccer team, heard about the job from Laetitia Knight, lecturer in world languages, literatures and cultures at UNT.

"I'd like to say that I think this job was made for me," Perlman says.

Besides playing soccer with various clubs, Perlman talks to boys and girls about the benefits of Title IX, the landmark bill that made discrimination illegal in education and federal programs; the U.S. collegiate athletics system; and how soccer is used as a form of social integration in tough neighborhoods.

She also talks about qualities — like leadership, organization, mental toughness, assertiveness and perseverance — that she developed by playing sports. Perlman says the task can be challenging because there hasn't traditionally been strong support for women's sports in France, but she loves the job.

"Seeing girls come up to me saying they were inches away from quitting sports but would continue thanks to my speech had a tremendous impact on me," she says.

Perlman would like to play for a professional soccer team in France and continue the sports diplomacy program. She also plans to take the Foreign Service Exam, which would put her en route to becoming a diplomat.

She notes that her athletic scholarship at UNT paved the way to her job because it allowed her to take unpaid internships with the International Rescue Committee, Office of Sustainability and the North Texas in D.C. Program, and study for a semester abroad at the University of Caen in France.

"I would never be in the position I am now," she says, "if I didn't go to UNT."

Edited September 24, 2012 by UNTDude

[KRAM1]

Excellent! I do think the Alumni Magazine at UNT is a very good product.

[blurbeard]

Excellent! I do think the Alumni Magazine at UNT is a very good product.

Agree, very nice article.

[UNTDude]

Agree, very nice article.

Love seeing the North Texas Mean Green T-Shirt promoted overseas!! That's UNT diplomacy!