#MyMessage — Nikhil Vinodh

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.

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He learned to cook when he went home for summer break, after his first year of living in an apartment as a junior. Now he enjoys cooking, and it saves money, he says.

“I started cooking at home, as well, and my mom was so surprised. She was like, ‘Oh, wow – you’re actually stepping into the kitchen,’” said Vinodh, who is from Bangalore, India.

Although he had traveled to America before college, Vinodh had never lived outside of India.

On campus, Vinodh is president of the SU South Asian Students Association, is involved in Bhangra, which is a traditional Indian dance, has a girlfriend, and enjoys a large group of friends.

Besides earning a degree in economics, Vinodh will graduate with minors in psychology and entrepreneurship in May. He plans to go to graduate school in the states, where he will pursue his love of film.

Vinodh is thankful for his “all-rounded, well-rounded” college experience in America, and he says he has lived out his own version of what he perceives to be the American Dream.

Before college, he thought the “American college dream” consisted of getting involved with Greek life, “getting a lot of women,” and having fun – the “typical college life, which has been branded by so many American movies,” he said.

Now, his view is different: “After coming here, I just realized that there’s so much more stuff to America – to college life – than just that, and my experience has turned out to be the complete opposite of it, and I’m really happy with what’s happened.”