New culture educates exchange student
May 10, 2016
Leaving with an abundant amount of ‘See you soon’s and ‘Good luck’s in her heart and mind, junior foreign exchange student Kamila begins a new chapter of her life in the United States. After landing from the over 10 hour and 6,000 thousand mile plane ride, Kamila is ready to embark what awaits for her in the U.S. Kamila comes ready to share the many traditions and cultural ideas following her from Kyrgyzstan.
Along with many other aspiring young adults, Kamila was chosen to be put into the international exchange program. “The exchange program that Kamila is a part of is the FLEX program which give students from former Soviet Union republics (like Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan) scholarships to study in the U.S. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in one of those countries (Turkmenistan) and knew so many hard-working students who tried to win this scholarship. A chance to study in the U.S. was life changing to these kids. So, when I met the coordinator for the program here, I wanted to be able to help a student like the ones I had met in Turkmenistan,” said Kristin Heinz, Kamila’s host mother.
It was kinda hard because everyone speaks English no one spoke Russian and I wanted go home. I cried for like 2 days because I missed my family and stuff but then it got well, really fast.
— Kamilla
Experience at Stillwater
Walking into a new environment for the first time, with people who do not share the same culture or have the same experiences can be overly intimidating. Kamila is ready to undergo the new chapter of her life knowing there may be some hardships she must overcome.
“[Coming to America] was not that hard because I already knew some girls like Emera Balok and Lindy Einan. So they told me what is was like and what it looks like so it was fine,” said Kamila.
Kamila’s resilient sense of awareness and positive attitude is what has granted her the experience of a lifetime to be able to study in the U.S. Not only does Kamila maintain a high GPA, she is involved in extra curricular activities such as tennis in the fall. Kamila is also in a SPCA group.
“[Her schedule] was kinda always busy but [all her extracurricular activities] were fun. But most of my free time I prepared for my tests back in Kyrgystan, so I could do well in order to pass on to college,” said Kamila.
Differences from Kyrgyzstan
Coming to a new country means foreign culture, foreign foods, foreign language, foreign everything. Kamila has chose and been chosen to place herself in a new environment to soak as much culture as she can. She expresses her never ceasing love for the outdoors and willingness to try new things.
“Kyrgyzstan has more beautiful places than America, I mean nature-wise, not like buildings and roads. It’s beautiful because most American places are buildings and that’s it, but Kyrgyzstan has fresh air, [and a lot] of greens, like trees. There’s not much pollution like in America,” said Kamila.
Major Challenges
Kamila’s honesty shines through when she talks about the things she struggled with when arriving at Stillwater. Kamila understands the importance of knowing weaknesses in order to improve them and make them stronger.
“It was kinda hard because everyone speaks English no one spoke Russian and I wanted go home. I cried for like 2 days because I missed my family and stuff but then it got well, really fast,” said Kamila.
The main hurdle Kamila was faced with was language. Coming to a new country, knowing the minimal spoken language can be intimidating.
“[I struggled mainly] with my history class. There were a lot of words that I did not understand and in general I do not know any history of America so when my classmates were talking about somethings I often was very confused,” said Kamila.
Post Foreign Exchange
Kamila plans to go back to Kyrgyzstan for college. She plans to take many ideas back from the U.S. to share with friends and family.
“I don’t plan to come back to the U.S. to study I would love to come back to take trips around the different states, that would be cool,” said Kamila.