July 26, 2011
WASHINGTON - Former Georgetown University women's soccer player Jackie DesJardin (C'11) had options when she graduated in May. DesJardin, a Howard Hughes scholar who was a member of the pharmacology lab in the School of Medicine, earned her degree from Georgetown College in neurobiology. She could have continued her academic pursuits or looked for a job.
She decided for the latter, but the job she pursued was one that involved playing on the pitch, not studying tests in a lab.
On the field, DesJardin was a leader for the Hoyas. The Blue & Gray advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament last season, set a school record with 15 wins and the team was ranked as high as No. 15 in the country last season. She holds career records in shutouts, goals-against average and save percentage. She also ranked among the top-20 in the country in shutouts and save percentage last season.
"After having a great season with Georgetown I decided that I wasn't quite finished with soccer yet and I wanted to play a bit more," DesJardin said.
DesJardin saw what her former teammate, Sara Jordan, the 2009 BIG EAST Co-Offensive Player of the Year, had done by continuing her career overseas in Iceland and ended up following the same route.
"Dave (Nolan) put me in contact with John Andrews, the coach of Afturelding and we started emailing," she explained via e-mail. "He offered me a spot on the team and I decided why not. I've never really gotten a chance to travel outside of the country so I thought this was the perfect opportunity."
Despite her excitement at the opportunity to travel, it was a new experience for her.
"I was nervous about traveling overseas," she said. "I've never spent a long time outside of the United States, so I definitely wondered what it would be like and whether or not I would like it. However, I had to move from California to Washington, D.C. to go to Georgetown, so I'm not completely unfamiliar to starting over in a new place with new people."
So DesJardin hopped on a plane soon after graduation and moved to Mosfellsbaer, a town in south-west Iceland about seven miles from the country's capital, Reykjavik.
"We play in Moso, as it's called for short," DesJardin said. "It's a pretty small town with probably about as many horses as people. It's located in a valley off of the Western Coast of Iceland, but it's only about a 20 minute drive to the capital, which is nice because I love the city and we spend a lot of our free time there."
And like she did at Georgetown, DesJardin has been able to meet many people from different backgrounds.
"Our team is made up mostly of younger Icelandic girls and we have one of the youngest teams in the league," she explained. "We have two other foreigners besides myself. The first is my roommate, an English girl who played at St. John's and the other is a Brazilian girl who also played in the United States. But we're getting new foreign players in now. Another English girl just arrived and we're expecting two African girls in, one from Trinidad and one from Libya, as well as another American."
The team has started to come together and DesJardin has enjoyed the opportunity to start her career by continuing to play the game she loves.
" I've played in every game since I arrived," she said. "I've played well, but we haven't won many games. However, we're getting these new players in now which I think is going to really boost things, so I'm excited for the next few games and hopefully we will be picking up some more points."
