So where are you from?
This particular question will always put a smile on my face. Although you’ve probably heard it at least a hundred times since orientation, it’s a great question to ask. It may be a simple conversation starter, but the answer you receive gives so much insight into the people you may come across at Columbia University in the City of New York. Whether hailing from as close as New Jersey or as far as New Delhi, there’s something that’s really special about interacting with the diverse student body here.
Columbia hosts 9,813 international students, interns, scholars, and accompanying international family members from over 153 countries/places of origin. I am just one of many, a voice amidst thousands—so feel free to consider this account a purely subjective one.
On that note, as an incoming first-year student and board member of the Society for International Undergraduates, I’d like to call myself a decent representative of the international student body at this institution. Similar to many on this campus, I had a somewhat longer plane ride to New York City this summer.
I’m not sure how financial aid works, I haven’t attended all the meetings that the International Students and Scholars Office offered to help out incoming students from abroad, and I might have skipped a couple of NSOP events. But from personal experience, I think international students have a bit more of a struggle when it comes to adapting to a new life at college. I know it wasn’t easy for me to leave behind my culture and the people I grew up with, to take a 10-hour-long flight here, and to realize I was so very far away from the only place in the world I call home. Of course, this story is a familiar one. Whether you’re a senior and you look back to the first days in a new environment, or have just started to fit into a different setting within the gates of Broadway and Amsterdam, there’s a common thread to the diverse experiences that international students share.
Columbia does attempt to accommodate students coming from abroad. There is help out there, if you look for it. For example, there’s a whole section on the University Web site that outlines most of the things that international students should know about moving in and getting settled, whether it’s filling out immigration forms or providing guides to discovering New York. I only wish I would have browsed through the site more carefully before arriving. I may not have been as informed as I felt I should have been at the start of my college experience—I think I just wanted to have something like “The Dummies Guide To: Moving in at Columbia University.” It wasn’t sold at the bookstore. Then again, I’m not even sure I knew where the bookstore was.
There’s always that emptiness that comes with a big change, and starting a new life in New York City definitely qualifies as a big change for anyone. The way I’ve found most helpful in establishing a home-away-from-home here at Columbia is to do a fair bit of discovering. I think meeting people that share common interests and backgrounds makes the transition process much smoother.
Those searching for involvement could attend the social events held especially for international students, or become involved in the many organizations that relate to particular ethnic or cultural backgrounds. Perhaps it’s not so bad that international students might encounter difficulties adapting to a new life here at the start, if it forces them to find ties to home. Although it’s quite abstract, finding people who share the same tradition, culture, and interests as you is a way of learning on its own. I know it helped me become a more independent and involved person at Columbia.
Although the University boasts a 17 percent international student population, my first few months here I barely met any. I knew that for fall 2007 the University enrolled 4,970 international students in all of its undergraduate and graduate level schools, which leads me to wonder, where are all these people?
It turns out they’re everywhere. Look around the next time you sit in a seminar. I think ethnic diversity on its own gives an unspoken insight into the variety of backgrounds Columbia brings together. I just wish there would be a way to identify more easily with the international students on campus. In the meantime, I think I’ll continue to ask any and everyone where they’re from. It says so much about who you are and what you bring to this community.
Whether you’re from Staten Island, Seoul, or Sweden, you bring something that is yours and yours alone. Maybe you’ve grown up eating with chopsticks or have always worn a yarmulke. We all have our own heritage, our own lifestyles, and our own stories to tell. There’s a unique identity each and every one brings to this University—international student or not. I think it’s fascinating that we’re here to share that with one another. So I’d like to know, where are you from?
The author is a Columbia College first-year and a Junior Board Member of Society for International Undergraduates.