international

March 3, 2017 - 3:04am
With immigration being widely discussed, ROTC students maintain their pride for their homelands, while serving the U.S.

During his first year in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, Moyan Dong crawled through the snow in civilian clothes for a training exercise for two hours. His fellow cadets wore their official ROTC gear during the exercise, but the U.S. military does not issue the gear to cadets without U.S. citizenship, like Dong. By the end of the exercise, his jacket was frozen solid.

“Dong is hardcore,” the sophomore at Syracuse University remembered a sergeant saying after the exercise.

October 30, 2013 - 10:12am
Meet Nihan Can, a film senior from Turkey.

Nihan Can is no stranger to living in other countries.

The Turkish exchange student’s time at Syracuse University is the latest in a series of study abroad locations that has included Boston; Vila Real, Portugal; and Berlin, Germany. Can describes herself as a “super senior” at her university in Istanbul, Turkey, where she studies film.

Even with American culture pervasive in movies and television in Turkey, she wasn’t sure what to expect when she first headed to Northeastern University in Boston to learn English.

October 30, 2013 - 10:07am
Meet Cathy Sun, an undeclared freshman in Whitman, from China.

Cathy Sun, an undeclared freshman at the Whitman School of Management, was born in Guangzhou, China, and moved to Shanghai when she was 3 years old. But Sun wasn’t exactly raised in the Chinese culture. She spent most of her life growing up in northern Germany, where the family relocated because of her father’s job.

When Sun thinks of home, she remembers both China and Germany. Shanghai is home to her family, her friends and her mother’s home-cooked meals. She remembers China for the people, she says, but Germany was her childhood.

October 30, 2013 - 10:06am
Meet Harsh Bhatia, an architecture senior from Bahrain.

Harsh Bhatia’s family has lived in Bahrain for more than 150 years. And yet he still considers himself an expatriate.

Bhatia, a fourth-year architecture major whose family emigrated from India generations before he was born, identifies as both Bahraini and Indian. Although his home is in Bahrain, he visits India once a year and is a practicing Hindu when he is at home with his family.

October 30, 2013 - 10:06am
Meet Ioana Emy Matesan, a political science Ph.D student from Romania.

Ioana Emy Matesan’s first US experience didn’t prepare her for her second one. From the big city of San Francisco, to the country town of Monmouth, Ill., Matesan was shocked when she arrived for her freshman year of college at Monmouth College.

“It was like a farm town. The college was in the middle of nowhere. I was only used to the big cities in the US. That was the biggest culture shock,” Matesan said.

October 30, 2013 - 10:06am
Meet Nikhil Vinodh, an economics senior from India.

College in America has done more than give economics senior Nikhil Vinodh a top-notch, private-college education: He’s also learned to cook.

“I had never stepped into a kitchen back in India,” he said. “But after coming here, I had to become independent.”

In India, it is custom for people in the middle and upper classes to have maids and cooks in their homes. Since coming to Syracuse University, Vinodh has learned to fend for himself.

October 30, 2013 - 10:06am
Meet Rose Aschebrock, a writing and magazine journalism senior from New Zealand.

Before coming to college, Rose Aschebrock’s only experience in the United States was a layover on her flight to England.

During the few hours Aschebrock spent stranded in LAX, the teenage New Zealander quickly noticed American sporting culture ­­— a spirited phenomenon unfamiliar to her native country.

Aschebrock had all but forgotten the competitive sports rivalries she’d witnessed on TV, in apparel and during conversations in America, until she began thinking about a secondary education.

October 9, 2012 - 11:54pm
Preview: The Syracuse International Film Festival to screen local and international films in various city locations.

Featuring the central New York premiere of a variety of films from all around the world, the ninth annual Syracuse International Film Festival will deliver four days of cinema bliss for casual movie lovers and film aficionados alike.

November 3, 2010 - 9:45pm
Award-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof discusses the vital role of women in addressing development issues across the globe.

“Are there more males or more females in the world today?” New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof polls the audience at the beginning of his lecture. “Males?” A few tentative hands go up. “Females?” Most of the attendees in a packed-to-the-ceiling Hendricks Chapel raise their hands.

The answer is men. But Kristof’s answer to the world’s troubles is women.

April 19, 2010 - 7:37pm
It's easy to fall into a comfortable routine while abroad, but I decided it was time to explore Beijing.

I knew, coming to China, that I’d meet people from completely different backgrounds than me. I have classmates from Mongolia, the Philippines, Sweden, Portugal, Australia, France, and the Netherlands. The international scene has been one of the best parts of studying abroad in Beijing, and is something you can’t really get anywhere else.