A temporary home
Their passports are put aside for awhile — Kent State FlashCards will be the only identification documents necessary on campus, as Junelov, Mazza and Campbell adapt to their international student status.
Eduard Junelov, a sophomore finance major from Turkmenistan.
Although Junelov says he believes he is the only Turkmen on campus, “You name a country, and I’m sure Kent State probably has someone from there,” he says, then smiles. “I mean, they have someone from Turkmenistan, so they have people from all around the world.” Campbell says she agrees. She thinks it’s an eye-opening experience to travel to America and be part of such a diverse environment. “It’s like I don’t have to travel the world to learn about the world because it’s right here at my fingertips,” Campbell says. “We have our own little globe here.”
That globe is really a wonderful — and mutually beneficial — experience that international students gain from studying in America and share when coming in contact with each university and its students, Nieman says.
“They bring young people’s culture from a different country, and they bring a lot of dreams of what they think America is, but also what they would like to do in the future,” he says.
Mazza says she was shocked that every image in America was the same as what she had seen in movies. “We have this idea of the American way of life,” she says, “and when I came here, I saw it was really like that. It was like being in the movies.”
Movie-like appearances aside, the crossing of cultures still proves difficult and is a challenge each international student may confront any time he or she steps into an airport and faces a security check.
“Of course (security agents) see that you look a little different,” Junelov says. “They know that you are probably an international student, and they treat you differently.”
He shrugs. “It just makes my life fun,” Junelov says, then he grins. “It makes it fun to travel.”
The Burr is produced by students at Kent State University twice per academic year.No part of The Burr may be reprinted without permission.