Maximilian Fischer

 Welcome to my e-portfolio for Graduation with Leadership Distinction in Global Learning. I am Maximilian Fischer a Sophomore at the University of South Carolina Salkehatchie where I will graduate with my Associates of Arts in May 2017.

  

As an international student who left all his family and friends behind, I decided to live my dream by studying in the United States while following my greatest passion, soccer. My family is not necessarily wealthy and the free college education in Germany would have outdone the plans of studying abroad but, an athletic scholarship offered by Coach William Glass made my amazing journey possible in the first place.

 

I grew up in a small town called Wahlen, right in the middle of Germany. When I was 13 years old I decided to attend a sports school, in a city more than 150 miles away from my hometown. The school was connected to a professional soccer academy that gave me the chance to follow my childhood dream of becoming a professional soccer player. This was the first life-changing step that I made for my love of sports. After suffering a year-long injury at the age of 14 I choose to attend a regular high school and participate in sports only as a hobby. Right before high school graduation, I heard from a friend who was planning to move to the United States in order to play soccer and study at a University. A new dream of studying abroad was born.

 

I knew I will need one year to find a US college and to get all my legal documents such as my Visa sorted out. I used this so-called gap year to build up some work experience in several professions. I spend two and a half month working at a gas station, three months in a reconstruction business and four and a half months in a factory building shock absorbers for wind power stations across the world. I still see trains with wind power stations form General Electronics driving through Allendale that could have parts in them that I installed or packed.

 

June 27th, 2015 departure time at Frankfurt International Airport. The day came quicker than I thought and now my dream comes true. My mind was filled with excitement and fear at the same time. Questions were running through my head. Is this the right thing for me? Am I capable of what lies before me? Am I able to make the team? All the questions vanished after arriving at the Augusta Regional Airport. I met Coach Glass and later on his wife (also from Germany) who both gave me the first impression of southern hospitality, which I thought was absolutely amazing. As the weeks went by, soccer pre-season ended and school started. I was ready to do my best. I had high expectations, I wanted to do good in my classes and improve my English as fast as possible. I used the up to seven-hour drives to away games to study and chat with my teammates, which were sometimes upset because “the German” left the light on at 11 PM on the way home from Virginia. In other words, that was just what I had to do in order to be successful.

 

After my first semester at USC Salkehatchie, I reviewed my transcripts with a gigantic smile on my face. I passed all my seven classes with an “A” while working as a work-study for my computer class teacher Stephanie Gruber. I could not believe my eyes and had my friend Tori pinch me in the arm to make sure it was real. The good grades of my first semester motivated me to do just as well in the future. Now in the middle of my fourth and last semester at the University of South Carolina Salkehatchie, I still have a 4.0 GPA; made great friends consisting of students, teachers, staff members, and Allendale inhabitants; and was able to lead the university’s soccer team through a great season.

 

I wish every reader to have an instructive, interesting, and inspiring experience with my e-portfolio.

 

Sincerely,

 

Maximilian Fischer