The English ace: GGC grad, tennis champion, wins on and off the court

Teodora Jovic has two seemingly polar opposite loves: literature and tennis. Incredibly, she has made a life with those two diverse interests and plans to pursue them far into her future.

It was the book "Anne of Green Gables" that ignited her lifelong love of literature. Her mother gave her the beloved classic, written in 1908 by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery when she was a young girl growing up on the Central Coast of Australia. It turned out to be a fortuitous gift because the story - about a spirited orphan girl mistakenly sent to live with two middle-aged siblings on their farm on Prince Edward Island - would end up having some parallels to Jovic's own life.

Jovic's parents, Gospava and Ranko, lived through the Yugoslav Wars before immigrating from Bosnia to Australia. Her father worked in construction, and her mother worked as a health care worker for seniors. When they noticed Jovic and her sister, Gloria, had a natural talent for the game of tennis, they devoted themselves to providing their daughters with every opportunity to pursue it.

"My parents dedicated and sacrificed everything they had to create a brighter future for my sister and me," said Jovic, who began playing when she was four years old. "Tennis is extremely expensive, so my parents worked multiple jobs so that we could have access to one of the most elite sports in the world."

Those sacrifices paid off in 2020 when Jovic graduated from high school with a tennis scholarship to Union Commonwealth University (UCU) in Barbourville, Kentucky. Like the main character of her favorite book, she left everything she knew to make a life for herself in a place utterly unknown to her.

Also like Anne of Green Gables, Jovic's indomitable spirit and natural abilities forged a path to great success. After two years at UCU, she had a 4.0 GPA and was ranked No. 3 nationally in singles by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).

That's when she took another bold chance and transferred to Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC).

"I was looking for a bigger challenge, and the #1-ranked GGC Grizzly team and superb English program enticed me to take the leap and move to Georgia," she said. "I wanted the opportunity to further my athletic and academic ability and create a stronger network of connections for the future."

In Jovic's two years at GGC, the women's tennis team won its 8th and 9th National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) national titles and the '24 ITA NAIA indoor national title. She was the ITA's No. 3-ranked NAIA singles player ('23), and was named to the first NAIA All-America team ('23, '24), the ITA Singles All-America team ('23) and as an NAIA Academic All-American ('24).

Looking beyond the tennis court, Jovic said that at GGC, she found a college and a community.

"My professors, classmates, colleagues and friends have become a second family to me in the States," she said. "I have been challenged and motivated to become a better scholar, leader and person every day during my journey here."

Jovic wanted to give back to the GGC community outside of her academic and athletic responsibilities, so she became a residential assistant in student housing and a sports reporter for the school newspaper, "The Globe." In addition, she was a sports media intern for GGC's sports communications team.

"GGC has given me not only the tools necessary but the wind in my sails to become a professional sports journalist after graduation," she said. "More importantly, GGC has made me a stronger, better person in all facets of my life and prepared me for life out in the 'real' world."

She said it hasn't been an easy road. Still, all the homesickness, physical and mental strains, and everyday stresses of being a young adult have all been worth it because graduating from college is a generational dream for her family. She said she is "over the moon" that her father will be at GGC's fall commencement to watch her walk across the stage while her mother remains in Australia to attend her sister's high school graduation.

After graduation, Jovic plans to return to Australia and pursue careers in both tennis and sports journalism. Her first assignment: the Australian Open.

"I used my tennis talents to earn a scholarship, with the goal of bringing back home our family's first college degree," she says. "After my tennis career is over, I plan to become a professional sports journalist who travels, covering the biggest sporting events internationally. I feel GGC has prepared me for whatever the future holds, and I am ready to make my mark on the world."