Junior swimmer Sasha Palazzo says his time in the pool has taught him important life lessons.

"With swimming I've had ups and downs," he says. "Failure is important because the more we fail, the more we learn."

Palazzo won the NCAA 2019 national championship in the 100 breast stroke. He swam in the competition in 2017 and 2018, but didn't medal until this year. Palazzo says his relaxed attitude may be what helped him finish strong this time around.

"I wasn't scared of anybody," Palazzo says. "I had the experience of being behind, so I had nothing to lose coming in. Obviously, it's good to see the hard work pay off."

When Palazzo left Italy for Wayne State in 2016, he was 16 years old, younger than many of his peers. It wasn't his first time away from home, having enrolled at the College of Olympic Reserve No. 1, an athletics boarding high school in St. Petersburg, Russia, when he was 14.

"It's easy to leave home at 14, because you're not very mature yet and you don't see problems that maybe people leaving at 20 might see," Palazzo says.

He says the transition to Wayne State was different, but the presence of other international students helped him adapt.

"Being an international student, there's always other internationals," he says. "There's a lot of them, even on our swim team."

Palazzo is planning on taking some time out of the pool to rest. He hopes to stay active in alternate ways, such as weightlifting and running.

"In order to be hungry again and come back, you have to charge your batteries a bit," he says.

Palazzo, who is pursuing a bachelor's in theatre, says he applies this same balance to his academic work. He says setting aside time to relax, and working in smaller increments, has helped him excel. Additionally, he says the initial anxiety many new actors experience is an opportunity for growth.

"Theatre allowed me to explore my personality a little bit," he explains. "Sometimes you do exercises where the professor makes us do scenes or roles that we might be uncomfortable with. That allows us as actors to explore and find traits in our personality that we didn't think were in us before."

Palazzo comes from a family of athletes. His sister, Xenia, swims for the Italian National Team in the Paralympics. He says his parents encouraged him to take up swimming as a child to promote a healthy lifestyle, and to make him goal-oriented. His first experience in the water, like many first experiences, was one of temporary discomfort.

"I didn't really like it at first 'cause the water was cold," he says.

Palazzo recommends students who are considering attending college in a new country need not be afraid to dive into a new experience.

"I think it's always better to take a chance than to say 'No, I don't want to try,'" he says. "If I look back at my life, I regret everything that I haven't done rather than rather than what I have."

Palazzo has taken advantage of many opportunities in his athletic and academic paths and speaks four languages: English, Italian, Russian and German. With all of this experience and knowledge under his belt, Palazzo still says he takes "one step at a time" when planning for his future career.

"I will see what I'm going to do," said Palazzo. "But for now, I'm just going to keep working at it."

By Jack Thomas, OIP communications associate

The Office of International Programs leads Wayne State's global engagement by creating opportunities that foster international education and research, facilitate the exchange of individuals and ideas that promote global competencies and citizenship, and provide resources that support the expansion of the university's global agenda. Follow us @WayneOIP.