From tennis player to tennis instructor to running a tennis business, Katie Dellich keeps climbing the tennis ladder.

The 23-year-old Butler graduate is completing a month-long training program this week with the Peter Burwash Institute in Palm Desert, Calif.

PBI International runs tennis programs at 67 resorts it operates in 23 countries. Dellich went through a 12-hour interview process in Houston last September before being accepted into the training program.

"It's a long process, but it's worth it," Dellich said. "This will set up my career in tennis. It's my dream. It's what I want to do with my life.

"Something like 99.3 percent of the applicants with this company don't make it as far as I have already."

Dellich is one of four PBI trainees right now. Training with her in Palm Desert are two men in their 30s and another in his mid-40s.

Of the 90 pros running tennis programs for PBI now, fewer than 10 are women and most are older than Dellich.

"Katie's attitude is her biggest strength," said Joachim Hohnstadt, who runs the PBI training program. "She's such a positive person and a joy to be around."

Dellich played No. 1 singles at Butler for four years, was a three-time MVP and put together a 110-9 won-loss record. She played two years of tennis at West Liberty State College in West Virginia and two years at Robert Morris University.

She went on to teach tennis at Hilton Head Island (S.C.) and in Sweet Briar, Va., before accepting a position as a tennis pro at the Oxford Athletic Club in Wexford.

George Jupin, whom Dellich worked with at the Oxford facility, had gone through the PBI program and recommended she look into it.

"The interview part was intense," Dellich said. "I was there with people from all over the world. You had to stand in a big circle, step forward and tell everybody what your biggest character flaw is.

"Some of the activities there are the most challenging things I've ever had to do."

One such challenge was teaching a blindfolded person how to play tennis.

"We put people in challenging situations during the interview process to see how they respond," Hohnstadt said. "Take people out of their comfort zone and see how they react.

"Dealing with the handicapped is part of what we do."

PBI established the first set of rules for wheelchair tennis in 1975.

While in California, Dellich is going through 450 training hours while learning a manual with hundreds of pages.

"After this training session, she will be able to run an entire tennis club or operation," Hohnstadt said. "Beyond just teaching tennis, she will know how to develop and execute a budget, contact sponsors, manage and prepare an event, etc.

"PBI wants more than tennis instructors. It wants well-rounded, well-trained business people. We are in the service industry and provide lifelong careers."

Dellich said she has learned how to deal with public relations, communications, travel and people situations.

"I've learned more in the past month than any other time in my education," she said. "I can't wait to get started."

After her training is complete, she will be posted at Four Seasons Nevis in the West Indies before moving on to One and Only Kanuhura in the Maldives, which are located in the Indian Ocean. Some of the other places housing PBI resorts are Switzerland, the Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, the Bahamas, Austria, Dubai, Singapore, Canary Islands, Italy, Egypt and Austria.

She knows all aspects of the tennis game now, from handling the courts to stringing a racquet, running a pro shop to running a tournament.

"I feel privileged to be here," Dellich said of the training program. "Each day, I just want to be the best person I can be.

"Now I can have the best career along with it."