Page 86 - ThePhoenix1995-96

On The Hill The Phoenix Thursday, December 7,1995, Page 10 International students flourishing at Western Maryland SERGIO AGU1LERA international students' services, thinks that these consists of assigning every international stu- if you are friendly or not". Acoordingto will- COlllrihlllinf:Wriler students do eventually find problems but most of dent to a family in the community. The ob- iam Spence. the college provides three ways \0 If you see someone on campus wearing un- them are practical. The most important to him is jective is {Q avoid this feeling of loneliness improvesuchproblems:1beorientation week.the usual clothes, talking with accent and having a transportation. Having no cars can mean feeling called homesickness, as well as a way to in- Multi-Cultural Students Association and the In- strange expression on his/her face, you are not like being in a closed room for some students. traduce American culture to them. temationaJ Club, meeting a character from "Star Trek",just an in- especially for those who came from big cities. Besides this, another problem is the dif- Theinternational students' orientation week temationalstudent Food is also a major problem, bccauseotthe ficuhy of getting integrated into campus life. takes place a weekbeforeregularorientation.llle lntemationaistudentsinWMCarenotsome- different habits of meals these students have. "A number of them show frustration with the goals of this week is to know the college's staff thing new. Since the early 80's the college has Some students are used to a different timing pretentious attitude Americans express and faculty, visit typical places and achieve mu- made an effort to enrich the campus by attracting for their meals, some are simply not used to sometimes. They (Americans) make it hard tual knowledge among international students. -studerus fr~m overseas, and throughout the years the kind of food they are going to find here, for them to become good friends", Spence The Multi-Cultural Students Association is the representation of these students has always and another students suffer restrictions in said. a group which tries to improve cultural aware- been constant here, according to the Admissions their meals because of their religions and Michela Patterson,coordinatorofMulti-cul- ness on campus. The coordinator of the club, office. costumes. Ahsan Latif '99 from Bangladesh, rural students, said of that: " People are uncom- Michela Patterson, says that ''The objectives of This yqr-thecommuni,ty ofi~temational stu- says that sometimes is very difficult to have fortable because they are not used to spend time thegroupishandlewitheachothers,havefunand -' dents ?OW1~