Syracuse University

October 30, 2013 - 10:11am
Meet Michele Lopez, a counseling and counselor doctorate student from Venezuela.

Michele Lopez came to the United States in search of stability and a better life. Even though she loved her family dearly, she said Venezuela was too full of uncertainties. The decision to leave her home country became final after a personal experience with Venezuela’s health care industry.

Lopez and her boyfriend had just bought an apartment and were looking to save some money by remodeling it themselves, she said. But she was injured in the process.

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 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 - 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 23, 2013 - 6:09pm
Sophomore Kanisha Ffriend promotes Czari, a clothing line created by her childhood friend, as a style for students with an "emperor or empress state of mind."

“It invites you to be bold when you wear it. It’s a very simple yet versatile top but it wants you to put more of your attitude and style into it,” said Kanisha Ffriend, a sophomore health and exercise science major and campus representative for the student-owned clothing line Czari. 

September 22, 2013 - 9:24am
Café Club Surreal offered live, interactive works of art on Saturday as part of the CRAVE arts festival.

CRAVE’s Café Club Surreal brought the crazy, quirky and cool to AXA Tower’s patio on Saturday in downtown Syracuse.

A mashup between a night club and Cirque du Soleil, the dimly lit space was packed as people posing as “live art” jumped, walked, ran and danced to house and electronic mixes around audience members, creating an environment of suspense, surprise and fun.

Audience members like Jessica Desalu, a clinical psychology PhD. student at SU, couldn’t peel their eyes away the walking works of art.

September 22, 2013 - 9:15am
The only online Crave festival event, One Hello World composes music to heartfelt, unique and authentic voicemails.

When someone doesn’t answer the phone, many people will leave a voicemail. Now imagine this voicemail as a song, part of a greater project to turn people’s stories into soundtracks.

This is One Hello World, a project that requests voicemails from participants to turn into song. The project has currently recorded 127 tracks and released an album, “The Listener,” in 2012.

September 16, 2013 - 4:47pm
No better way to study London's history than to explore it first-hand.