Chasing the American Dream
Rafal Wlodarczyk, from Olsztyn, Poland is a freshman international student at Slippery Rock University and a member of the SRU men's soccer team. At 19 years old, Rafal started studying engineering at the University of Warma and Mazury in Olszytn, Poland for about 2 weeks but he soon dropped out because it wasn't for him. With no idea what he was going to do next, his teammate left Poland to play soccer in the states at the University of North Georgia. His friend began to post videos and pictures of his life in the United States and from then he thought, "Why shouldn't I do that?". From then he decided to follow his friends footsteps and look for ways to study in the United States.
Unlike other international student athletes, Rafals journey was a bit different compared to his peers. Typically, international students find agencies that make their process of coming to study and play in the United States a lot easier. The agency's job is to get in contact with colleges and universities in the United States to promote the athlete, communicate scholarships and guide the athlete on paperwork and test requirements. After trying with a couple agencies and having no luck he thought “I must either be really bad at soccer or these agencies aren't working for me”, Rafal says. He knew he couldn't give up so he decided to take matters into his own hands and do it himself. He began to look for teams in the US and contact coaches in hopes of getting recruited. In 2020, Kevin Wilhem, SRU men's soccer coach, recruited Rafal as a left winger on the SRU men's soccer team.
From then Rafal knew he wanted to share his journey to people that share his same dreams back home. Rafal goes on to mention the people in Poland and their fascination with the "American Dream" and what life is like in the states. Before, Rafal was a shy person that didn't like to talk in front of the camera and pose in pictures but after about 2-3 weeks of pushing himself and his social media presence, he became used to it and his followers were really liking it.
He decided to fully dedicate his social media pages to sharing what it's like to go to school in the United States and how he made it happen. Since then he has gained almost 4,000 followers on Instagram and amassed almost 35k followers on TikTok.
Before coming to the United States he didn't know what he wanted to study and didn't really think about the amount of opportunities he would have with coming to the states. He just focused on getting here and living the “American lifestyle” but soon after, he noticed he needed to take full advantage of the opportunity he was given and think about his future . After taking a year to adjust to the new language, Rafal decided that he is going to continue his college career studying physical therapy.
George Oakley talks about how Rafal came to be on the team and the recruitment process.
