IUS Times

First Year Student Writes About Experiences

IUS freshman Alexander Nikolai Kleppe Montenegro (the last name is his mother's name) is half Columbian, half American, and grew up in Caracas, Venezuela. Alex, as he prefers to be called, has been selected as the IU Southeast representative for the First-Year Experience Website, a site featuring blogs by IU students at several campuses. The participating students will update their blogs weekly until finals week. Check out Alex's thoughts at www.indiana.edu/~firstyr/.

Alex's first semester at IUS has already been both exciting and challenging. He recently wrapped up his fall season playing tennis for IU Southeast and wants to join a multicultural club and the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity in the spring. An alumnus of Ballard High School and current resident of Prospect, Kentucky, Alex says the drive to campus isn't too much of a hassle because he "loves it here."

His hopes are that by earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Business with a concentration in management will help him reach his goal of coordinating the Wimbledon Tennis Championship. He also would like to become a tennis tournament coordinator for the United States Tennis Association.

Alex speaks Spanish and English fluently, and he has some knowledge of Portuguese and French. "I've traveled the world and have a very open mind," he says. His father is a chemical engineer and his mother is a nurse who teaches English as a second language at two schools in Louisville, Kentucky. His only brother, Eric, is a sophomore at Ballard High School.

Before ending his first tennis season at IU Southeast, Alex said in his blog "I love the guys on my team. I can say that my first tournament, although it was the last one of the season due to ankle injuries, was a blast. I can't wait until the spring season when we get to live it up again."

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