After about three years living in Athens and studying at Ohio University, Monica Gontovnik, a Colombian native working on her doctorate in interdisciplinary arts, is ready to return home.
“I think Athens is a beautiful town, but I’ve had a hard time living here, not being in a big city,” Gontovnik said.
Gontovnik is one of 199 international graduate students studying at OU this year — each with their own experience and opinions about moving to a small, rural Ohio town.
While Gontovnik said she sometimes feels trapped and feels that no organization reached out to her, Shailendra Singh said the International Student Union and Indian Students Association helped him enjoy his first moments in Athens.
“They arranged my pick-up, and they gave me initial housing accommodations so I never struggled here,” said Singh, a mechanical engineering master’s student from India. “I just came in, and from the first day, I started enjoying the life.”
The International Student and Faculty Services office handles international students and faculty’s paperwork, offers immigration advising and provides admitted students with information on things such as airport shuttle and temporary housing.
International graduate student enrollment has increased 38 students from last year. However, enrollment has declined since 2008 when OU had 235 international graduate students enrolled.
Before 2007, OU had more international graduate students than international undergraduate students, said Kyle McKenzie, associate director of International Student and Faculty Services.
“We had so many graduate students all along that most of (the programs) that we developed were just for whoever was here,” McKenzie said. “I would say that, in general, what we do is for everyone.”
The office created a learning community after the increase in undergraduate students but does not offer any specific programming for graduate students to network with one another beyond orientation.
During orientation, peer advisers get to know students individually and can help introduce them to other students, said Kara Kauffman, the graduate assistant in the office.
The office also advises the International Student Union, which offers coordination and funding to about 20 international organizations on campus this year. The union received $16,000 a quarter for programming from the Student Activities Commission this year, said Vardine Grigoryan, vice president of the union.
Adam Chen, a master’s student from China and International Student Union adviser, said he feels that OU does have an international “community,” but also said it was difficult to transition from being in the majority to a minority.
“(I went) from a majority in China to become a minority here, racial-wise, and that’s a big difference,” Chen said. “So, you know, you feel lonely. But eventually I had friends, American friends and international friends, who are just really close to me.”
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