WNMU student Arnav Arkanath has been balancing university-level golf with high academic achievement. Arkanath graduates this month with degrees in Business Management and MarketingSILVER CITY, NM—Business Management and Marketing double major Arnav Arkanath had a lot of adjustment ahead of him when he made the decision to leave his hometown of Milton Keynes, England to come to Western New Mexico University.

Arkanath, who is set to graduate in May, was recruited to WNMU by former Men's Golf Coach Kent Beatty. "When I first got here it was very strange," he said. "It is quite a small town, and the scenery is really different from the U.K. In the U.K., there are houses built everywhere, and everything is really packed close together, whereas here you have thousands of miles of open space."

In addition to experiencing an unfamiliar landscape, Arkanath was also living away from his family for the first time. "Especially the first few months, I was adjusting," he explained. "I had never lived away from home before and it was a bit of a shock, but the guys on the team have been awesome. They helped me settle in, and I have stayed for four years and really enjoyed it."

Arkanath said he has grown in the past four years, especially in the area of time management. When he started college, time management was a challenge, he said. "We only have so much time, and we have got practice and travelling for tournaments," he explained. "If you don't stay on top of your assignments, you can fall behind quite easily."

As he has developed time management skills, he has also found the university's small class sizes to be an asset. Because of the small class size, said Arkanath, students "can really communicate easily with all of the professors. They help athletes a lot." 

"One thing I have learned," he added, "is that if you put in the work and show [faculty] that you are willing to learn and put in the time, they really want to help you in return."

The work that Arkanath has put into balancing golf and academics has been paying off. Last year, his team reached as far as the Division II National Finals. They were also named Academic Champions by the Lone Star Conference (LSC) for achieving the highest GPA, helped along by Arkanath's perfect 4.0, for which he received the individual award from the LSC.

While the next steps in his life are still not completely clear, graduate school is likely. "I am thinking about coming back and doing my MBA here and then helping and working for athletics and doing some coaching for golf as well," he said.

Part of the draw of the Southwest for Arkanath is the weather. He is not certain whether he will try to play golf professionally in the future, but the sunny, dry weather of the southwest allows him to continue to practice his game—something that would be more challenging in the wet weather that the U.K. so frequently sees.

In addition, he said, the community at WNMU makes him feel grounded. "I like the community a lot here," said Arkanath. "They are a quite friendly group of people, and they stand behind all their athletes."