Karla Elena Vazquez Setzer: Leading The Way

Leading The Way: A series where the leaders of Maryland’s four student-led groups (SAAC, Pre-Health Terps, Worldwide Terps and the Team IMPACT Fellows) share their goals for the upcoming year ahead. Next up is Worldwide Terps President Karla Elena Vazquez Setzer (Women's Golf).

Worldwide Terps

Ever since I decided to come to the United States to pursue my degree while competing at the highest level of collegiate golf, I wondered what the challenges I would face and what that process would look like. Luckily, when I arrived to Maryland, I came across a student-athlete organization that helps international student-athletes overcome those challenges, Worldwide Terps. 

I found out about this resource through my teammates. They were very involved in the organization since a former student-athlete and their past teammate, Lulu Farina, created it. When I attended the Worldwide Terps events during my freshman year, I was able to meet people who were living or lived similar experiences to mine, people from all over the world who also played a D1 sport at the University of Maryland. It also allowed me to connect with the Maryland Made staff who have helped me with various aspects of the development of my career off the course. 

As time passed, I became more involved and interested in the different organizations among GSAC and their leadership programs. Last year, I was WWT Vice President. I worked hand in hand with the former WWT President Ashley Germain and the Maryland Made staff. We identified the strengths and opportunity areas of the organization at the beginning of the year. Among its strengths, it had a good structure to inform international student-athletes about the legal aspects of living in the United States with topics such as OPT/CPT, the responsibilities of having an F1 or H1 student visa or getting a driver’s license.

Even though this structure has worked to inform international student-athletes in past years, we also wanted to build a community among the people who attend the organization’s events. For this reason, we decided to include different fun events so that people could also get to know each other. One of these events is the Welcome Back Party, which takes place in September as our first event of the year, where new students get to make connections with the support staff, board of directions and upperclassmen. Another event we added to the program last year was the Worldwide Terps Holiday Party, which takes place in November. Ashley and I came up with the idea since most international student-athletes do not get to go home for Thanksgiving break. During this event, we have a Thanksgiving dinner with all the attendants while also organizing games and bonding activities to enhance the sense of community. 

In addition, one last change we made last year was designing a declaration of tax system for international student-athletes in association with the Robert H. Smith School of Business program, TerpTax. In this program, accounting students volunteer to help people with their tax filing so that they get experience in this area of their career. With this tax declaration help for each international student-athlete provided by TerpTax, students have been able to declare their taxes on athletic scholarships to the government, which is a requirement for every international student. By providing this structure we have been able to take away the stress from students because they can schedule a meeting with TerpTax interns in Gossett Hall, which they frequent a lot since it is our academic center, while also getting proper guidance in the process of tax declaration. 

This year, I want to continue leading this group and improve last year’s pilot projects to provide the best help my team and I can give to all international student-athletes in this institution to make their experience abroad more enjoyable. International student-athletes must become involved in the organization because it will allow them to navigate legal matters in the United States in an unchallenging way as they will have proper guidance on these. Additionally, they will be able to find people with similar backgrounds to theirs, people who leave their homes, families and country to pursue their dream of becoming the best version of themselves on and off the course, court or field. 

I am excited to continue leading this group because I believe that we will be able to keep growing the international student-athlete family to foster the “One Maryland” motto. A family where we support each other in tough situations, whether that is in their sport, in the classroom or real life.   

Karla Elena Vazquez Setzer