International Students

Hi, as a former undergraduate student, I thought to write down what I think are the three main things one needs in order to thrive abroad when you are a student.

1)community 2) focus 3)teachable

When I first came to the U.S. I was able to find a Christian community to plug in and be a part of. Although, when I first arrived I did not expect this to happen. As a matter of fact, I simply did not know what to expect as I jumped into college in a different country. But God provided friends that during my first years of college became like family. We ate, played sports, sang, and just had a fun time together. From playing intramurals ( in the U.S this means sports hosted by the University, usually dorms (or residence halls), fraternities, and sororities form teams to compete against one another), to eating at the cafeteria, to going to watch movies, to simply exploring the new city that had become my college town, it was a very enjoyable time. Not to mention that having friends whom to speak to was very helpful when the going got tough. And at some point in everyone's college career, the going gets tough and it's important to have friends by your side, to encourage you and keep at it.

The previous point ties with the second, and I cannot stress this enough, FOCUS. One can have much fun with the friends and soak in the new city and new environment one is thrown into, but it's also necessary to spend time in the library or wherever you prefer to study and focus on your school. Play hard, but study hard. In my undergrad, I used to love studying at the library, although going there sometimes could be counterproductive due to the many people I would see that I knew and would spend much time saying hi and speaking to, but when one gets 'into the zone', you can hone in, read, think, digest it and knock your schoolwork out. Remember you are there to study and get your degree after all. So have fun, but also remember to set time apart to focus.

Finally, you have to be teachable. Now, what does this mean? Well, Young Padawan, this means you have to be willing to learn. This is something more than just having an open mind, you have to be willing to realize that you don't know it all, although you may think you know a lot(and there's many like that), drop the pride, and when you don't understand something have the courage to ask for help when you need to. Sometimes there is more than one way to look at things. Everyone in college is there because they are wanting to learn something new or have an end goal of putting their education to good use in one way or another in the future. Perhaps some of your classmates want to become doctors or lawyers, or perhaps you don't know yet and think your Bachelor's degree will be enough for the career you want to have, and that's okay. But you are there to learn and its very hard to teach someone who is not willing to listen, who thinks he or she doesn't need it or thinks he or she already 'knows it all'.

You can't control your teacher's attitude, but you can definitely control yours, and at the college level, your teacher most likely also wants you to succeed.

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Even if you find yourself in classes you think you may never use the material again, be reminded that many individuals around the world do not have your opportunity of going to a university for 4 years and be exposed to all the education you are. What I've learned is that sooner or later all the coursework pays off, you may not see the result at the very moment you are learning, but once you are out of college everything you learned or did not learn plays a role in how you perceive the world after you graduate. And this actually stays a reality even after college, you have to remain flexible and humble enough to recognize that we are always learning,

If you have specific questions, topics, or issues you would like for them to be addressed in future posts feel free to write it down in the comments, or if you have feedback feel free to put it below.

All the best,

A current grad student pursuing an International MBA at the University of Memphis.