MyMessage

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.

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.

October 30, 2013 - 11:07am
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 - 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.

October 30, 2013 - 11:06am
Meet Mohamad Khairie Shaari, an international relations senior from Malaysia.

After being accepted to Syracuse University, Mohamad Khairie Shaari remembered scanning a list with the names of other Malaysian students enrolled at the school. There were a total three. 

But the number didn't deter Shaari — it only added to the appeal of attending the university tucked in the relative seclusion of upstate New York. Shaari relishes the opportunity to explore and learn about different cultures, to live outside the comfortable and familiar. 

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.