Olivia Spiezio, Campus Carrier Copy Editor
Every school year, Berry College welcomes international students into the student body.
According to Berry College’s 2014 Fact Book, 19 of 2,085 undergraduate students were international and 16 percent of the total 26,436 undergraduate students from 2001 to 2014 originated from outside the U.S.
None of this would be possible without Tasha Toy, director of multicultural and international student programs, and admissions director Brett Kennedy who collaborated to welcome six new students into the student body.
“Students come from lots of different backgrounds,” Kennedy said. “All bring to the table a different set of assumptions and things that they could enrich the community.”
“The SAT is much more common than the ACT on applications, and they must demonstrate proficiency in English, especially when their high school classes weren’t taught in English,” Kennedy said. Because of this, either English language proficiency exams must be provided upon application as well as college placement exams.
The students become Toy’s responsibility when they have accepted their offer of admission to Berry. She and the registrar’s office act as team advisors, helping students select classes and work towards their major successfully.
“Of the six [international students] that are coming in,” Toy said, “two are permanent…the other four are exchange. We have a nice mixture of students who are coming to Berry for either a semester or a year at a time, and many who are permanent.”
Toy and Kennedy are responsible not only for the admission and placement of the students, but also international orientation, travel arrangements, homeland security, visas, social security cards, bank accounts and providing general understanding of Rome and Georgia, geographically speaking.
Although there are students coming from as far away as Korea this year, Toy said they are not experiencing too much culture shock. “They are really settling in very well,” Toy said. “Two girls have actually just tried out for the cheerleading squad, and a couple other students have found their way into their niches around campus.”
Settling in well and experiencing American culture is the goal of a true exchange program, Toy said, as well as allowing the students around them to experience another culture.
“There is tremendous diversity [in majors],” Kennedy said. Students are placed in their appropriate BCC class as incoming freshman where they continue as scheduled towards their degree while receiving an extra education in the culture of another nation.
Camila Bauer, a freshman engineering major from Guatemala, says that she is adjusting very well to Berry after finding it on a list of the world’s top 10 most beautiful campuses. “I have family in Virginia and when I visit I spend about a month or so with them,” she said. She explains that this has helped her learn about American culture.
Senior economics major Togoryamba Nunghe of Nigeria says that the concept of Southern hospitality was strange to her upon arriving at Berry. “I was suspicious as to why everyone was so nice and smiled at me,” she said.
Another common issue for students was the size of Rome. Many international students came from larger towns and cities from around the world, so moving to the small community that is Rome and Berry was shocking to some of them. “I had no idea Rome was such a small town,” Nunghe said, “and I was ready to leave once I found out. But I grew to like it.”
Bauer said that, while she missed aspects of Latin culture, Berry’s heavy emphasis on student involvement has helped her avoid being too homesick. “[Berry] sponsors many activities that help you get to know one another so you don’t think too much about your friends and family that you left at home,” Bauer said.
To learn more about Berry’s Multicultural and International student programs, contact Tasha Toy at ttoy@berry.edu.