BLOOMINGTON - Stacy Hassinger was born in Kankakee, moved to Indiana, then to Tennessee and, as a third-grader, back to Indiana. By most standards, she was well-traveled. | IWU volleyball wins twice

The Hassingers were just getting warmed up.

Tim Hassinger works for the Ag division of Dow Chemical, and as his oldest daughter neared the end of her freshman year at Westfield (Ind.) High School, he dropped a bombshell.

"He said, 'I got an offer in China,' " Stacy Hassinger said. "I was definitely surprised, and I really didn't want to leave Indiana."

Tim Hassinger understood.

He realized there were "a lot of unknowns, some anxiety, fear … all of the above." Still, he and his wife, Tonia, believed the move from suburban Indianapolis (Noblesville) to the Far East could provide "a significant cultural experience."

So in August 2005, the Hassingers and daughters Stacy, Kali and Tara moved to Shanghai. Stacy Hassinger would spend her sophomore and junior years halfway around the world.

"I was terrified," she said.

Not to mention angry, disappointed, frustrated.

Again, Tim Hassinger understood. But he and his wife forged ahead, telling themselves it would be good for her in the long run. They even defined "long run" in their minds.

"We said that if by the time she was 35 she could say it was an excellent experience, that would be good," Tim Hassinger said. "That was our joke with each other. When she was very unhappy when we first got there, we said, 'Well, she's not 35 yet, so we still have time.' "

Stacy Hassinger is a freshman setter now on the Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team. She is mature for a freshman, says IWU coach Kim Nelson-Brown, and is making a major contribution in her first college season.

She is ahead of schedule in another respect as well. Already, at 18, Hassinger considers her two years in China "a really good experience."

That may be a tad short of "excellent," but mom and dad will take it.

"I can't imagine not having gone there now," she said. "I learned a lot."

She learned about China, certainly, but also about adjusting and assimilating. She made new friends at the diverse Concordia International School and adapted to life in a city of 18 million, a country of 1.3 billion.

She came to enjoy her stay enough to ponder a third year in China.

"When we had the opportunity to come back after two years - originally it was going to be three - Stacy was split between staying and coming back to the U.S.," said Tim Hassinger, commercial vice president for international business at Dow. "Her comment was she would be happy either way, that it was up to us.

"She is very happy to be back, but I believe she had a lot of fun, met a lot of interesting people who she's stayed in contact with, and learned a lot from a lot of perspectives."

Stacy Hassinger returned to China for a week last spring with her 14-year-old sister (Kali) and says she would consider living internationally again.

It is significant progress for someone once "terrified" by the idea. The transformation took time and effort, particularly at Concordia International.

Americans accounted for about 20 percent of the student body, with Korea, Canada and Japan among the other nations represented.

"It was really hard academically," Hassinger said. "It was a big change with all of the homework. I was with kids from all different countries. I was the only American in my world history class, so it was a whole different point of view of every subject."

One constant was volleyball. Hassinger played at Concordia International for Sue Frerking, a coach and teacher who became her mentor.

She also was allowed to practice with a high-level Chinese "sports high school" team - the first Westerner to do so - but only after a 5 a.m. phone call from her Mandarin-speaking club coach in Indiana to the sports school coach in China.

Hassinger picked up a few volleyball terms and enough of the language "to do basic stuff, like direct a taxi driver." The benefits to her game translated more extensively.

"The intensity and quality of play was high in the practices," her father said. "We did a video from there. We sent that to college coaches."

Yet, it wasn't until Stacy Hassinger returned to Indiana for her senior year that she became aware of Illinois Wesleyan.

A Flanagan native, Tim Hassinger was familiar with IWU and mentioned it as an option. His daughter, a chemistry major hoping to go into forensics, was attracted to the strong science department and the opportunity to play volleyball.

She sent an application and soon was hooked up with Nelson-Brown, who watched her on video and later in person during club season.

"I knew then she would be a good fit for our program," the IWU coach said.

It was a fit geographically as well. IWU's proximity to Flanagan was "a good tiebreaker," her father said.

Her grandmother, Winnie Hassinger, lives there. She also has an aunt and uncle (Connie and Steve Hassinger) in Flanagan and a cousin in El Paso.

"It's a really good spot," she said of IWU's locale.

Hassinger feels at home academically, saying the workload in China prepared her well for a college curriculum. The volleyball transition also has been smooth, with the 5-foot-7 Hassinger leading IWU in assists with 6.62 per game.

"She brings a spark to the court that's kind of contagious," Nelson-Brown said. "She's very upbeat and a hard worker.

"With freshmen, you have expectations that you're going to have to push them along and mold them. She's grasped everything and just adjusted very well."

Chalk it up to experience … "a really good experience."