Thanksgiving through the international eyes of an American student

For many across the country, Thanksgiving break is a time of the year for scholars to relax and do nothing special. But for Rachel Foote, a sophomore at the University of New Hampshire, Thanksgiving is one of the only chances in the year she has to see her family, given that part of her family lives in Italy and the rest are scattered throughout the East Coast.

Foote explains Thanksgiving as one of the only times of the year where the only thing that matters to the family is how many movies they watch, how good the food is, and who wins the family board games – such as Scrabble.

Given Foote’s international family background, she is more prone to acknowledge the importance of Thanksgiving, as well as understanding how hard it can get for those international students that don’t have the opportunity to fly home for the break, and are forced to stay around the area by themselves.

To avoid letting international students feel like they have nowhere to go, Foote has hosted students in the past and has tried to make them feel like they were part of her family. Foote admits that when she hosted, she put more effort into making the holiday extra-especial – by cooking more traditional meals and doing more fun things rather than just watching T.V. and sleeping after eating.

North Carolinians come to N.H. to unite the community through African music

April C. Turner is a performing artist that travels around the country, and sometimes around the world, sharing her knowledge of the traditional West African dances and music. Though she spends most of her time in North Carolina, along with her team of drummers and performers, she enjoys traveling to share her ideas on how these dances and art forms can be used to show community-wide concepts such as working together, integrity, and perseverence.

Turner explained how in several traditional communities of West Africa, music is a key part of their society. Music and dances are used in different events: if somebody is born there is a dance for that, and so there is for a wedding, a funeral, a graduation, and even to plant the farm or give grace.

During her visit to New Hampshire, Turner and her team exhausted the importance that traditional african music has in itself, and everything that it symbolizes. She compares it to today’s modern music and the use we give to it, admitting that she believes “music can tear whole communities apart nowadays.”

Lastly, Turner and her team of performers, put a lot of emphasis on the importance of the instruments and the part that every member of society is given once a dance or music starts playing. They highlighted how a community comes together through these events because everybody is celebrating and assisting to the creation of such rhythm and ceremony.

Furthermore, you’ll be able to find a clip with the sounds of three traditional African drums playing in harmony.

International parade at UNH to bring awareness across campus about diversity

The International Education Week at the University of New Hampshire is famous for its variety of events held throughout the assigned week, which normally falls in mid-November. Some examples of past year’s events are “Chinese names: how do you pronounce them” and “International Humanitarian Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis,” the seminar.

This week is devoted to raise awareness among the entire campus about the diversity and amount of different nationalities that the University holds. OISS’ staff agree that this is a week where everybody comes together as one – no matter their differences in beliefs, religion, or political mindset.

The first event of this year’s celebrations was the International Flag Parade, which called many campus residents’ attention. “Our goal this year is to give everybody a flag, any flag, in order to show that diversity we hold here at UNH,” says Academic Transition and Integration Advisor Gillissen ‘Gigi’ Green. (Photo/Chiara Vercellone)

The parade begun at Thompson Hall Lawn, located next to the Office of International Students Services. Other entities from the University took part as well –  such as the music band and other non-international students. The parade ended at the Strafford Room, located in the Memorial Union Building.

At the Strafford Room, students were able to visit many tables that contained typical food and other items from different countries of the world. These countries were marked on a map with stickers from different colors to represent where were students from, where they have been and where they want to go or are going in a future. This idea, the students mentioned, made them appreciate more the international community and the rest of the students on campus.

However, the event didn’t solely aim to bring students together. In the past few weeks, the OISS has collected donations that are now part of a “silent action” that will happen on Friday’s luncheon.Among these items, real antiques can be found – like a Japanese Sake Set, a Jordanian hand-painted plate or a set of traditional Egyptian jewelry. “All profits from the auction will go directly to Puerto Rico’s survivors of the hurricane, in hopes that it will help them recover quicker,” says Immigration and Academic Advisor Sarah Miller.

UNH: 90% Americans vs. 10% International

“You are going to the U.S. by yourself? But you look so young!”

“Hi Mrs. …. Um, sorry how do you say your name? It just looks so foreign, ha ha.”

“If you look to your right you’ll see the United States, the land where dreams come true.”

“Hope you enjoyed your flight with us. The airline thanks you and hopes to see you flight with us again.”

“Your room is at the end of the hall. I hope you enjoy orientation!”

“Is that an accent I hear? Where are you from?? TELL ME!!!!”

These are common phrases that most international students seem to have heard at some point in their back-and-forth journeys to college abroad.

At the University of New Hampshire, the international community is bigger than what most students realize. With more than 1,000 international students – almost 10% of the University as a whole, – the University keeps growing every year not only with the admission of American students, but also with the addition of more than 200 students from across the world that decide to attend this campus every fall.

Thuy Nguyen, Senior Immigration and Academic Advisor at the Office of International Student Services, admitted that there isn’t an explicit number of how many students join UNH every year, but agrees that this international community has been rapidly growing for the past couple years not only in New Hampshire, but around the nation.

Studies from the Institute of International Education have concluded that, compared to 2014, in 2016 baccalaureate colleges – such as UNH – have experienced a 7.5% increase in the enrollment of international students.

This increase means more than 2,000 new students in most colleges, which keeps surprising the population throughout the nation – as these numbers haven’t been so high in a long time.

“I think the University really prides itself on creating that diversified learning environment – whether is racially, economically, etc.,” said Nguyen. “This diversity enriches what any student takes away [from college] at the end,” she added.

There isn’t one reason as to why international students decide to come to the little town of Durham to study: there is many. A Voice of America (VOA) article states that the academic institutions in the United States offers some of the best academic programs, as well as career-minded learning opportunities and varied resources archives for research purposes.

Gillissen Green, Academic Transition and Integration Advisor at UNH, believes that though the academic excellence is one of the reasons, the involvement of sports teams in recruiting abroad is a factor that also has a lot of weight in these recent changes.

“This is an effort from the whole University. For different reasons, athletic teams obviously want to get a stronger team, but different departments are trying different things to try to bring [international students] to their department,” said Green.

It is very common for these students to feel homesick or not fully comfortable in such a different place from ‘home,’ but the OISS has created, over the years, a set of different programs to make both American and international students connect and share their different cultures and traditions.

“We are hoping by creating these platforms for people to meet up, the students will feel more inclined to initiate and get people talking and doing fun things,” said Nguyen.

Programs like Buddies without Borders or the different organizations – such as MOSAICO or the Asian Students Club – have made a big difference for these students, as they make them feel at home away from home.

After all, being international is hard: you are away, it is not your language, etc. However, nobody said it would be boring. More information about the OISS provided services and programs can be found here.