{"id":10008,"date":"2021-03-09T13:20:33","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T02:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/tas\/?p=10008"},"modified":"2021-03-09T13:27:39","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T02:27:39","slug":"iww-2021-focus-janaya-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/tas\/news\/2021\/03\/09\/iww-2021-focus-janaya-smith","title":{"rendered":"IWW 2021 focus: Janaya Smith, community leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


As part of <\/em>International Women\u2019s Week 2021<\/em><\/strong> from March 8-14, we\u2019ll be highlighting strong female leaders in the Tasmanian tennis community.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spoke to <\/em>Janaya Smith<\/em><\/strong> from Hobart about how early tennis opportunities have helped to develop her leadership skills and what her hopes for women and girls involved in the sport are.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janaya is a Hobart-based teacher with strong ties to the Tasmanian community and a storied connection to tennis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A standout state representative player in her junior years, Janaya claimed four straight Pardey Shield<\/a><\/strong> titles from 2010-2013 as the best schoolgirl in the Tasmania, before accepting a US college tennis scholarship to Eastern Washington University<\/strong>, where she studied to become a teacher.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The COVID-19 pandemic required Janaya to adapt to a new way or working, but ultimately enhanced her leadership skills and affirmed her fondness for her chosen profession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“2020 challenged me to think on my feet and find new ways to engage with my students,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It made me appreciate having a full classroom when we were all allowed to return to school, and just how much adore my job.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent months, Janaya has volunteered her time to be a mentor for Tennis Australia’s Future Leaders Program<\/strong>, recently run for the first time from October 2020 to January 2021 for 15-17 year old girls with a passion for tennis in their community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her leadership journey in the tennis community started well before last year, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Janaya alongside Evonne Goolagong and Team Australia ahead
of the 2018 Oceana Tennis Championships in Samoa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Janaya has been a part of the Evonne Goolagong Foundation<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0pathway, which aims to use tennis as a vehicle to increase opportunities for Indigenous Australians, and was part of the first all-Indigenous team to represent Australia in tennis at an international event<\/a> at the 2018 Oceania Tennis Championships<\/strong>\u00a0in Samoa.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From this opportunity, Janaya has gone on to assist in the Evonne Goologong Foundation Indigenous Camps<\/strong> held in Tasmania and has led Tasmania\u2019s Team to the National Indigenous Tennis Carnival<\/strong> held annually in Darwin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on her involvement in the sport during International Women’s Week, Janaya hopes that more women and girls continue to strive towards leadership roles, both on and off the court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Tennis has led me to so many wonderful people who have inspired and encouraged me to be the best person and tennis player I can,” she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I encourage females to strive to become leaders in their communities because we have so many valuable thoughts, ideas and perspectives that can make an impact on others.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I encourage females to strive to become leaders because we have so many valuable thoughts, ideas and perspectives.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6260,"featured_media":10021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242,1],"tags":[243,280,281,73],"class_list":["post-10008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-females-in-tennis","category-news","tag-females-in-tennis","tag-iww","tag-janaya-smith","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/tas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/tas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/tas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/tas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/tas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/tas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/tas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/tas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/tas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/tas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}