HAVERFORD, Pa. – Haverford College offers students the unique chance to study abroad for either one semester or an entire year as a junior and earn credit towards their Haverford degree. Several student-athletes take advantage of this opportunity on an annual basis. This summer, we will be profiling some of those student-athletes who shared their experiences.
For more information about Haverford College's study abroad program, click here.
David Kong (men's tennis)
Hometown: Hong Kong, China
High School: Shanghai American School
Major: Economics
Minor: Philosophy
Athletic honors: First-team All-Centennial Conference in doubles (2018), second-team in 2017 … Second-team All-Centennial Conference in singles (2018) … Centennial Conference Player of the Week (3/19/18) … Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Team (2018) … Centennial Conference All-Sportsmanship Team (2018) … Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll (2018) … Two-time ITA Scholar-Athlete.
Study abroad location/school: Full year at The London School of Economics in London, UK
What classes did you take while studying abroad/which were your favorite?
I took Finance, Law, Philosophy of Economics, Microeconomics, and Econometrics. All of them were pretty interesting.
Most interesting/memorable moments from the semester abroad?
My most memorable moment was getting to travel to Scotland to play St. Andrew's Old Course with my dad (the mecca for golfers worldwide). I also got to play a bunch of really good golf courses around the UK and Ireland.
Why did you decide to study abroad?
I wanted to study abroad to augment my Haverford education with a big-name technical city university. I gave me a whole different perspective.
What are your future plans?
Investment Banking.
How did studying abroad help your academic and/or professional career?
Studying abroad helped my academic career by allowing me to take technical niche classes like auction design (part of my Microeconomics course) and other more specific classes like Law and Finance that Haverford otherwise does not offer. This year also helped my professional career by broadening my network through the people I've met and becoming part of the very strong London School of Economics (LSE) alumni group.
What did you do to prepare for the upcoming season while your teammates participated in the non-traditional season?
I missed the whole year but was still able to play competitive tennis my junior year by representing LSE in the British University & Colleges Sport (BUCS; UK's version of the NCAA). I was able to play for half of my time there and for the other half, I just worked out and ran by myself in the gym.