This week we take a look at the university of tennis player Margriet Timmermans. Margriet is part of the University of South Florida, where she has almost finished her ‘sophomore year’.
Before Margriet left for America, she already achieved many great things in the Netherlands: she won the ‘Nike Junior Tour’ U12, became Dutch champion four times and even managed to get her first WTA point before departure! How cool is that?!
A while ago we asked Margriet what she likes most about her university, she said the following about that:
“What I like most about USF is the fact that there are a lot of students on the campus which brings a nice atmosphere, the friendships with all the other student-athletes and the beautiful weather.”
Margriet Timmermans – student-athlete
Would you like to learn more about Margriet’s university? Keep scrolling!
Campus
USF is spread over three different campuses, but for now we take a look at the USF campus in Tampa. The largest of the three and the place where Margriet studies. About 41,000 students study on campus every year. It’s really huge, check out the video below!
Athletic facilities
As in any university spotlight, we don’t just look at the campus, but especially at the athletic facilities. These are often the most special and the most important for (future) student-athletes. 13 major facilities can be found at the university, a few are listed below.
The Raymond James Stadium is where the American Football teams come into action. And they don’t do that without encouragement, because there is room for 65,000 spectators per game! Bizarre huh?! In addition, there are 1243 televisions throughout the stadium that show live images. Professionalism at its best… You can check out the stadium below!
The Corbett Soccer Stadium is another great facility at the university, as the name suggests, this is where the soccer teams come into action. This facility only opened in 2011 and can accommodate more than 3000 fans per game. You can see it below!
Of course we also take a look at the place where Margriet regularly takes action, which is the ‘Varsity Tennis Center’. In total there are no fewer than 12 courts on which both the men’s and women’s teams train and play matches. You can see it in the video below!
Besides the above facilities, there is much more to be found at the university, such as a golf course, basketball area, soft and baseball field, and many more.
Do you also want to become a student-athlete at a university in America?
Athletics
The sports teams at USF are called the “Bulls.” The bulls are part of the American Athletic Conference and play in Division I. In total there are 9 women’s teams and 8 men’s teams. You probably spotted the university colours by now, green and gold. The Bulls also have an awesome mascot: Rocky the Bull! You can see him below, speaking of bad ass mascots…
In 1965, ‘Rocky the Bull’ became part of USF for the first time. Back then as a cartoon character in the school paper! Later, in 1986, Rocky got a major makeover and became a mascot. Cool fun fact: In 2013, Rocky won the ‘Capital One Mascot of the Year Award’. Want to know more about Rocky? You can read his story here.
Fight song
In addition to a bad ass mascot, a suitable fight song belongs to the university, as is tradition at an American university. The lyrics of USF’s fight song can be found below:
USF Bulls are we,
We hold our standard upright and free.
For Green and Gold we stand united.
Our beacon lighted and noble to see.
USF Bulls are we,
For USF we’ll always be.
With all our might we fight the battle
here and now, and we will win the
victory…
(shout!) S-O-U-T-H F-L-O-R-I-D-A
To make singing along a little easier, we found the fight song on Youtube for you. Check it out in the video below:
Academics
According to the US News College Rankings, USF is one of the top 50 public universities. On average, the student-faculty ratio is 22:1, and nearly 45% of all lectures consist of fewer than 20 students. The five most popular studies are:
- Health Professions
- Business, Management, Marketing
- Biological en Biomedical sciences
- Social Sciences
- Engineering
Curious about all the studies that USF offers? View the academic website here and click here to see if your major is offered.
Did you start thinking: “What Margriet does, I want that too!”? Reach out to us, we love to help.
