international student

#MyMessage — Osun Mau
By Becca Milliron
October 30, 2013 - 11:17am
Meet Osun Mau, an undecided sophomore from Canada.

Osun Mau is a sophomore at Syracuse University who hopes to major in pre-med but for now focuses on taking science classes. Mau is also a Canadian citizen. 

As a freshman, Mau sat through classes offered by the International Student Team at SU, which she says included a Facebook tutorial and explanations of colloquialisms that many American students often use. 

While she says she can appreciate that many students are helped by those classes, she does not believe they are for her.

#MyMessage — Nihan Can
By Nicki Gorny
October 30, 2013 - 11:12am
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.

#MyMessage — Harsh Bhatia
By Avery Hartmans
October 30, 2013 - 11:06am
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.

#MyMessage — Emy Matesan
By Taylor Procopio
October 30, 2013 - 11:06am
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.

#MyMessage — Nikhil Vinodh
By Allie Caren
October 30, 2013 - 11:06am
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.

#MyMessage — Rose Aschebrock
By Liz Sawyer
October 30, 2013 - 11:06am
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.

A light in the dark
By Christine Mehta
August 24, 2010 - 11:49pm
Alexander Williams, a graduate student from Ghana, has managed to overcome the obstacles inherent to being blind.

Alexander Williams was always a curious child. One day, his curiosity got him into trouble.

At age 12, Williams was hit in the right eye by a stray bullet.  Warring factions in the part of Liberia where he lived for the first 12 years of his life were fighting over port access to the harbor when his house got caught in the crossfire.