{"id":7260,"date":"2020-07-13T15:24:37","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T15:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/?page_id=7260"},"modified":"2024-12-06T16:18:59","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T16:18:59","slug":"international-students-usc-upstate","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/international-students-usc-upstate\/","title":{"rendered":"A World Away"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nUp Magazine<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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International students step into a new life far from home.<\/h2>\n
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When sophomore Supatta Puttanavarat arrived at USC Upstate on a golf scholarship, she felt a little overwhelmed. She felt confident about her game, but less certain about her language skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, oh my God, I don\u2019t know anything. What did they say?\u201d she recalls thinking.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, she had an immediate support network from her teammates, particularly those who had made the same journey from Thailand a few years earlier. Senior Suwarin Yord-in took Puttanavarat under her wing, translating unfamiliar words for her when she got stuck. \u201cNow she\u2019s way better,\u201d Yord-in says proudly of her friend.<\/p>\n

USC Upstate is home to 84 international students, undergraduate and graduate, from 14 different countries. While they represent only 1% of the undergraduate student body, they are 10% of Upstate\u2019s student athletes, representing the Spartans in basketball, soccer and golf.<\/p>\n

Alex Lorenz, director of global engagement at USC Upstate and associate professor of German, says international students bring valuable new perspectives to the classroom, which enhance American students\u2019 learning experience. That in turn builds cross-cultural understanding and prepares students for a global workplace. \u201cThis diversity can bolster research, innovation, and international collaborations, which ultimately benefits the institution\u2019s academic standing and global reach,\u201d Lorenz says.<\/p>\n

Students who come to the United States for college enjoy the new adventure, but it\u2019s not always an easy adjustment. Negotiating an unfamiliar language is just one of the challenges. For some, such as graduate student Ravichandra Gochipatala, it\u2019s figuring out how to secure a lease and get around town without a car. For those coming from an area of conflict, such as Maria Kirienko, it\u2019s learning how to tune out the news from back home in order to stay focused.<\/p>\n

Then there are the cultural nuances to decipher. Margr\u00e9t Edda Bjarnad\u00f3ttir found these particularly baffling. In Iceland, where she\u2019s from, people are much more direct in their speech, she says. But in America, that can be interpreted as rudeness. \u201cA lot of things, like how you communicate, how you act, how you behave, those society rules that are not actually written but you just kind of know them \u2013 that was pretty hard at first to navigate,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Yet the rewards that come from experiencing the unfamiliar \u2013 personal growth, improvement in a second language, potential job opportunities \u2013 continue to give students reason to come to USC Upstate to study. Here are a few of their stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>

Margr\u00e9t Edda Bjarnad\u00f3ttir <\/h3>\n
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\"\"Bjarnad\u00f3ttir, a senior communications major and a forward\/midfielder on the women\u2019s soccer team, felt a spark of recognition when she arrived in the Upstate from Iceland. Like her hometown of Reykjavik, Upstate cities are small and surrounded by natural beauty. But other things were unfamiliar to her. When people talked about places in America they wanted to visit, or amusement parks they\u2019d gone to as children, she didn\u2019t have comparable experiences to share. \u201cWe don\u2019t even have an amusement park in Iceland,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Being away from family and friends has been one of the hardest adjustments. One of her favorite activities with her friends back home was going to the swimming center after soccer practice. Iceland has a strong pool culture, she notes, and relaxing in the hot tubs with friends after a dip in the cold tubs is not only good for recovery, but also for unwinding at the end of a day.<\/p>\n

After graduation, Bjarnadottir plans to continue playing soccer, and is considering pursuing a master\u2019s in Denmark or Iceland. She has loved studying communications, a subject she discovered at Upstate, and feels it helped her become a better communicator as she adjusted to life in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though Icelanders\u2019 second language is English \u2013 or sometimes Danish, because it's mandatory to learn Danish there for a couple of years \u2013 it's still different to speak and actually interact face to face with people, instead of just seeing or hearing interviews or videos or TikToks online.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the thing that I was most nervous about \u2013 the weather. Because the humidity here is crazy, and in Iceland we don't really have any humidity at all. We barely have the sun. And because we train when it's the hottest outside, I just pray to God that there are some clouds around. But in Iceland, I\u2019m like, where\u2019s the sun, where did it go?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was really strange and really funny at the same time when people would ask me questions that I thought were basic, like, \u2018Oh, do you celebrate Christmas?\u2019 I'm like, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s my favorite holiday.\u2019 But then it was my mom who told me, well, they don't know anything about Iceland, and maybe it would be disrespectful if they assumed we celebrate Christmas.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I've experienced a lot of growth since I've been here, and that is through my teammates, through my coach, through the people that I've met here. But also connecting with the friends that I still have in Iceland and talking to them about my experiences here, about how certain situations have been, and what I can take from them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>

Supatta Puttanavarat<\/h3>\n
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\"\"Puttanavarat, a sophomore communications major, was born in Pattaya, a coastal city in eastern Thailand. It\u2019s a popular tourist destination, with lots of beaches and hotels \u2013 and golf courses. Puttanavarat is one of the many Thai golfers who have come to the U.S. to play for the Spartans, thanks to a partnership between a placement agency in Thailand and Upstate coach Todd Lawton.<\/p>\n

The strong lineup of Thai women on Upstate\u2019s team through the years has provided every new arrival with a built-in support network. Puttanavarat leaned on those teammates when she arrived, especially senior Suwarin Yord-in. Yord-in says Puttanavarat addresses her as sister, since in Thai culture it\u2019s important to show respect for those who are older than you. And much like an older sister, Yord-in has encouraged her friend to overcome her shyness about speaking English, and helped her feel comfortable in an unfamiliar place. Among Puttanavarat\u2019s new experiences: using a fork to eat, which she learned to do by observing a friend of hers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love watching soccer and volleyball. Before I came here, I didn\u2019t watch basketball that much, but when I watched it, I loved it. I learned the rules of softball and baseball last year, I just kept going to watch them play. It\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI miss my mom and her food. She cooked everything for me. I miss my friends in Thailand. I think here, I know people but we don\u2019t talk as much. In Thailand, with my friends, we grew up together and are close. We\u2019d go hang out together, just chilling and talking about what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn Thailand, college sport is not the big deal. You cannot play golf and you cannot go to university at the same time. We study so hard there, we take five or six classes in one day. We focus more on the academic than on the golf side.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to talk to people a lot, trying to communicate with everyone. Last year, I didn\u2019t talk to people, but this year I know a lot of the athletes and the students so we talk more.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a Thai restaurant here, where the owner is Thai. We\u2019ll say, can you make a Thai-style fried rice for us, or a Thai curry? And she\u2019s like, yeah, sure. Sometimes when we\u2019re too tired from practice, we\u2019ll go to that restaurant and say hello. And sometimes she\u2019ll say, 'I was making this Thai dish, do you want a couple to go home?' We want to pay for it, and she\u2019s like, 'It\u2019s OK, I just want to give it to you.'\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>

Zihe Wang \u201924<\/h3>\n
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\"\"Wang is a graduate student in the business analytics program, working on his second degree from USC Upstate. In April, he graduated with a bachelor\u2019s in interdisciplinary studies, with a focus on communications and global studies. He came to the United States from China, where he grew up outside the city of Harbin, located near the border of Russia. It\u2019s cold half the year, Wang says, so the heat and humidity of South Carolina took some getting used to.<\/p>\n

He saw studying in the U.S. as a fun challenge and an opportunity to use English. Wang started his studies at Bob Jones University before transferring to Upstate, but continues to live in Greenville. Up until three years ago, he didn\u2019t have a car, which was a challenge. \u201cDuring COVID time it was super hard, because you can\u2019t go anywhere, just stay in the house,\u201d he says. Besides now owning a car, Wang also adopted a dog, a labrador mix he named Stewie. He enjoys cooking in his spare time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like nowadays, just a BA is not enough. If you want to try to get a better life, you have to work hard. You have to keep going. You have to push yourself, you need to get out of your comfort zone and prepare yourself for your life in the future.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do learn English in China for many years in school, but when I actually use it, it\u2019s kind of a different deal than just learning it. Another thing is communication with people at first. It's always the hardest thing to ask. I'm more like a quiet person, and if you don't talk to people you cannot prepare or learn how to talk.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI like \u2018Friends\u2019 a lot. It\u2019s quite popular in China. The speed they speak is moderate, not that fast, so it's easy for me to understand. In the beginning, when I was trying to learn how to speak, I watched that show a lot to help me to build my speaking skills or listening skills. That show actually helped me a lot.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFor college and for the master\u2019s degree, you have those very long, difficult texts to read and to understand. So that is one of the hardest parts for me. If I do translate those into Chinese, sometimes they don't use exactly the right word in there. Then you need to translate those words and understand what is happening, and then to try to understand the article. So that is going to make it very hard as well, because I can't read it fully in English, but I can't fully read the translation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>

Ravichandra Gochipatala<\/h3>\n
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\"\"Gochipatala always planned to study abroad one day, but wasn\u2019t expecting he would do so right out of college. After earning his bachelor\u2019s in computer science at Aditya Degree College in Visakhapatnam, India, he was admitted to a master\u2019s program in computer applications. But the college was located in the north of India, far from his home, and his father thought he might as well go abroad for graduate school. \u201cI thought maybe I\u2019d come here at 25 or 30,\u201d Gochipatala says.<\/p>\n

Coming to the U.S. has been a longtime dream of his after following the career of Elon Musk. \u201cI always woke up at midnight to watch his rocket launches,\u201d Gochipatala says. He has already begun looking into internship opportunities to gain career experience. His other goal is to learn to drive, so he can get a car and return to doing martial arts or boxing, activities he enjoyed back home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn't know how to cook when I first came here. My mom taught me how to cook rice before I came, so I only knew how to cook rice. She\u2019s [now] taught me all the Indian-style curries. When I started cooking, she\u2019d tell me on a video call, 'First cut the vegetables, and then I'll teach you how to do it.' So when I have doubts, I call her.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy city is full of beaches, mountains, everything. It's an urban city. We have a lot of companies, steel plants, but they\u2019re trying to change it into a capital city. A lot of people don't want that, because if it becomes a capital, we get a lot of people, a lot of pollution, and we\u2019re going to cut a lot of trees. We don\u2019t want to lose the greenery.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI've been a lot of times to Charlotte. A lot of my Indian friends live there. Mostly, I just stick to my laptop. It\u2019s a boring life because I have limited time. My visa is until 2028. I don't want to waste time. I need to improve my skills. If I go there partying and waste money, that's not good.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI would say I'm not very emotional. I'm not missing my parents, because I talk to my mom every day. Otherwise, she\u2019d keep calling me if I missed one or two days. They're safe in India. I don't have to worry about it. They always told me, just focus on the studies. I was born in a different city called Kandukur, but after my dad got married, he went to Visakhapatnam without telling my mom and me. I was a really, really little kid. He went there to find a job. He worked multiple jobs and finally settled in real estate. He's a real estate agent. So yeah, there were a lot of struggles. He always raises them to show me how hard it is. So that's why I put my emotions aside.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>

Daniel Helterhoff<\/h3>\n
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\"\"Helterhoff, a business administration major, admits basketball is not the sport that inspires fanaticism among his fellow Germans. That would be soccer, which Helterhoff in fact started off playing when he was 5 years old. \u201cBut at some point I was just too tall,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then I found the joy of playing basketball, and had to decide between playing soccer and basketball.\u201d He chose basketball, which felt more comfortable physically and which offered him better opportunities. Before coming to the U.S., he spent three years at a boarding school in Germany that had a basketball academy and one year playing for the German U18 National Team.<\/p>\n

Helterhoff transferred to USC Upstate this fall, after playing basketball for two years at a Texas university. He had spoken previously with coach Marty Richter, and liked Richter's commitment to giving back to the community. Changing colleges proved easier than he\u2019d expected. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of nice people here, and they\u2019re all very friendly, so it was easy to integrate into the community,\u201d he says. He also still enjoys playing the occasional game of soccer, and cheering on his home team, 1. FC K\u00f6ln.<\/p>\n

\u201cCologne [where I\u2019m from] is a very nice city. There\u2019s so many nice people. They\u2019re all very friendly and talkative, and it\u2019s just a nice environment because there\u2019s so much green \u2013 flowers and trees and everything. And we have a very famous cathedral, one of the oldest cathedrals in the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI always dreamed of playing basketball in college and living the college experience. One of my best friends first committed to [Our Lady of the Lake University] and then his parents called my parents and asked them if I would consider going with him as well. And one week later I just committed to the same school as he did. We were there for two years together and it was really nice. Then another friend of mine joined us one year later. So we were a whole group of people that had known each other already for 10 years.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI think one of the biggest adjustments for me was my diet. I had to change my diet because at home, I was always used to eating food my mom cooks, or very healthy in general. And then when I came here, I had to consider what I'm eating, because there are so many more fast food places, which I like and I really enjoy. That was another problem. So I had to consider what I'm eating to not gain weight and still be fit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>

Maria Kirienko<\/h3>\n
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\"\"Kirienko didn\u2019t really need another degree when she enrolled at USC Upstate as a marketing major. A native of Siberia, she already has a bachelor\u2019s in economics and a master\u2019s in finance from St. Petersburg University in Russia. She also had worked as a real estate appraiser in St. Petersburg for almost 10 years. Then Russia invaded Ukraine, and Kirienko, who is half Ukrainian, decided it was time to leave.<\/p>\n

Even before war broke out, she had already been thinking of going to the U.S. She felt she had hit the ceiling for wages in her job, and taking on a manager\u2019s role would have meant more work without a comparable increase in pay. While going back to school was not what she had envisioned at this point in her life, she realized it was a way to start a fresh career and also stay in the U.S. She also discovered a passion for graphic design after starting at Upstate. Now a double major, and the social media coordinator for the Johnson College of Business, Kirienko juggles a busy schedule. But she tries to make time for her favorite outdoor activity \u2013 hiking \u2013 and mushroom hunting.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know when recruiters ask you at an interview how you see yourself in five years? I never could answer this question, because I do not know. I just follow the flow. I see what options do I have in the moment. And then I decide what works best for me. That's how I took my first concentration [for my] bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s. And when the question popped up again and I needed to decide what major I\u2019m going to do here, I was like, marketing sounds fun. That\u2019s how I decide, I just follow my heart.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI'm from Siberia, I lived in St. Petersburg. It's way cooler during the summer. And I moved [to the U.S.] in the beginning of May, and I stayed in Florida for almost three months. I was melted. I said, no, I\u2019m not gonna stay in Florida, it's too hot. I could not bear this. And I moved here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an immigrant, and getting a degree here is a huge life and career elevator. I realized that it will help me a lot to find a job here. I was planning to change the field where I was working and definitely did not plan or want to stay in finance. And I said, OK, I know nothing really about anything else and I do not know how to do any other job. The only way to learn here, to get a network, to build my reputation here, is just to go to college to get connections.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c[The war in Ukraine] was a huge part of my life, the first year of the war. But then you just get tired of this. You understand that your life is going on. You cannot focus on this. You need to build your life. Especially in a new country, you have to work extra hard. You have to go the extra mile all the time until you settle here, and it\u2019s a long journey. And I said, OK, I need to change my focus, I cannot focus on it anymore. And I just stopped watching all the news and everything. I said OK, this life, I left it there, I need to look forward. But it was really, really hard.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International students step into a new life far from home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7260","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/up.uscupstate.edu\/archive\/fall2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}