THIS ABOVE ALL: TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE – King University Student Profile
“Growing up I had never really thought about leaving Denmark.”
Jeppe Thybo
Once a land pillaged by Vikings, the Denmark of today takes on an entirely different aspect. It is friendly, and peaceful, and has been named the world’s happiest country on numerous occasions. And it was in this beautiful country, where the word for “please,” in Danish doesn’t actually exist, that Jeppe Thybo first picked up a golf club, putting into motion a future that would take him thousands of miles from home.
Jeppe grew up in the seaport town of Esbjerg on the west coast of Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. And like so many young athletic European kids, it was soccer that he first took up playing, but it was golf that he would take him halfway around the world.
He stated as a teenager that he initially never considered leaving Denmark and relocating to the United States for college. After high school, called gymnasium, you decide what specialization you want to pursue for a career and move within the country to study. But if you are a star athlete, as well as an astute pupil, your options become much more limited, if trying to pursue both. You don’t have the opportunity to play sports and go to school simultaneously.
“People usually move to one of the bigger cities, find an apartment, find a job, and go to school. The school days are longer there, than here in the USA,” Thybo says. “It would be hard to work, study, and play a sport.” One day Jeppe was checking his email, “My mom sent me a link to go to college and to play sports,” he says.
The link was to an agency that helps students to study abroad. The organization is called “College Scholarships USA (CSUSA).” Jeppe went through a Norwegian subsidiary that assisted him with the required tests, the acquisition and sending of transcripts overseas, logistics, the preparation of a golf swing video that was sent to coaches, the networking with the coaching staff, to his enrolling at King University, and finally the actual move from Denmark to Bristol, Tennessee.
He arrived in Tennessee and fell right in with the culture at King, making friends, excelling in class, and becoming a member of the community. “I like being able to just focus on playing sports and studying and being here at King allows me to do that,” Thybo says with a laugh. Very outgoing and enthusiastic he explains that Northern Ireland’s Rory Mcilroy is his favorite golfer, but also cheers for Swedish superstar, Henrik Stenson.
When asked about King University he said that he likes studying at King because it is challenging, especially quantum mathematics, and the faculty are very attentive due to the smaller classes. He loves the sciences, and hopes to go into physics, in some capacity, after graduation.