Leaving home and going to a Big Ten university such as MSU is a momentous and intimidating prospect for any teenager to take on.

When your home is overseas, that idea takes a whole new meaning.

For field hockey players  Heather Howie,  Sophie Macadré,  Katie Miller and  Jenni Smith, the opportunity to play collegiate sports and obtain a world-class education was too big to pass up.

While MSU student athletes come from many parts of the world, not many teams are as well represented as field hockey.

Both Howie and Smith are natives of Scotland, Macadré came to East Lansing from New Zealand and Miller grew up in Ireland. While all their paths to MSU took different forms, one thing became very apparent once they arrived.

Making the commitment

Growing up in Glasgow, Scotland, Howie never had plans to go overseas after high school. Once she started playing field hockey at the age of 12, Howie began to excel and eventually worked her way onto the youth national team. It was soon after that Howie was exposed to the idea of going to college in the U.S.

It was her junior year at Craigholme School on a rainy day at practice. In the midst of all of the drenched uniforms and mud-filled cleats, the girls began joking about playing abroad.

Possibly unaware of Michigan’s inclement weather, Howie took the advice of a teammate who had played overseas and got in contact with the head coach at MSU.

“Scotland’s obviously quite small and there’s not as many opportunities,” Howie said. “I wanted to try a different scene.”

For Smith, the thought of going to an American university was not very prevalent growing up in Kinross, Scotland. Unlike Howie, Smith’s desire to travel overseas was independent and she actually hired an agency to reach out to field hockey programs in the U.S.

“It wasn’t until near the end of high school where I really started considering it and thinking that I’d like to do it,” Smith said.

As a native of Wellington, New Zealand , Macadré also began to ponder her options during her senior year. After hearing from a teammate who attended Boston University, Macadré knew that she wanted to come stateside. After sending out highlight tapes and getting recruited by a number of schools, Macadré narrowed her choices down to four schools.

“In January, I went and visited Wake Forest, Boston University, then I came here and then I went to Northwestern,” Macadré said. “But I picked Michigan State ... I loved the big college sport atmosphere ... I wanted the most of the Big Ten experience, just take everything in the four years that I could, and Helen (Knull) is just incredible.”

Miller’s story is a little more complex, as Miller was actually born in Kansas and lived there for three years before moving to Ireland. She’s always had the idea of moving back to the U.S. to go to school, and once Knull reached out to her, Miller knew she wanted to be in East Lansing.

“I always had the notion of wanting to come over here,” Miller said. “But it was before I even played field hockey — I didn’t really know how I was going to get over here.”

Luckily for Miller, one of her coaches in Ireland had met Knull while he was attending field hockey camps during the summer. After learning that Knull was looking for a goalkeeper, he got the two in contact with each other.

Making the move

All four got what they bargained for, and once they arrived on campus as freshmen, it became evident how big of a decision they had made.

“It was crazy,” Smith said of her arrival on campus. “I just carried two huge bags and I was like ‘OK, I’m living out of these for a year.’”

In Howie’s case, the constant distraction of field hockey helped minimize the culture shock. That is, until the season ended.

“We just had so much to do all the time I never even thought about it,” Howie said. “And then once season (was) over and things started to slow down, I was ready to go home.”

Currently in their freshman year, Macadré and Miller are still adjusting to their new surroundings. With no clear memories of her time growing up in the U.S., Miller has been soaking in the American culture.

“There’s definitely a wider range of people,” Miller said. “Not saying that everyone’s weird, but there’s a lot of different people, a lot of different opinions, which I’m not as used to at home. ... So it’s a lot more eye-opening into the different types of people in the world.”

For Macadré, there have been some rough patches since she arrived on campus. Nevertheless, she never wavered in her decision to come to MSU.

“Some days have just been really hard,” Macadré said. “Now, after the season looking back, it’s definitely been worth it. You just take it as it comes.”

Because a trip home would cost well over $1,000, they quickly had to learn to cope with their surroundings instead of settling for a quick escape.

“Obviously freshman year there’s times when you’re like ‘ah!’” Howie said. “It’s hard and I wasn’t doing too well in school, and you’re just like ‘aw geez,’ but ... overall I definitely think I made the right decision.”

Making memories

As freshmen without much playing time this season, Macadré and Miller have just been trying to soak up the college atmosphere as much as possible. Between spending time in the locker room and experiencing their first tailgates, both have already made lasting memories in their limited time at MSU.

“That’s the best place,” Miller said of the locker room located inside Spartan Stadium. “I just walked in there now and there’s girls sleeping and taking naps in there.”

Macadré looks back at her first couple weeks as some of her favorite moments. With the team’s initiation process and all of the preseason training, Macadré was able to adjust to the new lifestyle fairly quickly.

Smith and Howie, however, have become much more seasoned.

Now more than four years removed from their arrival in fall 2011, Smith and Howie have become staples of MSU field hockey.

Both have seen action in every game MSU has played since their arrival, excluding the 15 games Howie missed this year because of an injury.

Looking back, both Scotland citizens have made significant contributions over the years and have been a part of a Big Ten championship and an Elite Eight run in the NCAA Tournament.

“My favorite memory, hands down, would be winning Big Ten,” Howie said. “But beating Syracuse on their home field and flying the private jet was pretty close.”

While Smith also looked back fondly at those moments, her lasting memories will be the ones made off the field.

“At Rick’s (American Cafe),” Smith jokingly said. “No, I don’t know, just being with the team. Preseason obviously sucks because we’re running all the time. But we went kayaking this year and we went laser tagging the other year. It’s just stuff that we do as a team ... because we’re just like a big family really.”