by Andreea Georgescu
Staff writer
According to Eri Nakamoto, a worker under Dean of Students, International Student Association (ISA) is an organization that provides the opportunity to enrich cultural differences and build true friendships through hosting cross-cultural events that contribute to the community. ISA has weekly meetings which can also be attended by any American students.
ISA has this semester 104 members at Southeastern from 43 countries. The organization has meetings every Monday at 7 p.m. on the second floor of the Student Union. Any member is welcome to bring new ideas in to benefit of the organization. “I am in charge to find an agenda so we can have constructive meetings and also positive actions as an organization,” said Angelo Ndilou, the president of the ISA.
The main purpose of ISA is to help the international students adapt to the new environment when coming to the U.S. For that, members organize cultural awareness events such as Carnival of Cultures on campus, field trips to Oklahoma City or some other close areas and bowling or movie nights.
The ISA members also do community service and visit the local schools to present their cultures. “I think we can do more community service and make our organization better known on campus,” said Ndilou. ISA members discussed a couple of ideas and suggestions in the last meeting. One of the suggestions mentioned in the meeting was about a potential trip to other universities in the area, which also have international students. The central focus for this trip is to create the opportunity for the members to meet other international students from another school. The ISA will also have the chance to find out what other ISA groups are doing in their meeting to get ideas. “I am really excited to know more international students from other universities and also to see how they organize their meetings and activities,” said Masha Volokhova, a member of ISA from Russia. Some suggestions of universities were North Texas University, East Central University and University of Oklahoma.
Another suggestion was to attract American students to come to the meetings and maybe do some of the activities with the ISA members. The last suggestion was to find ways of raising money to provide scholarships for the international students. In order to do so ISA members can sell home-made sweets or try to work the concession stands at the sporting events.
“Being part of ISA helped me in more than one aspect; I feel no longer lonely in a different country. I found more friends that I have a lot in common with, and to always stay entertained and happy,” said Volokhova.
According to Volokhova it is hard for American students to understand exactly what an international student feels when first coming here. First, there is the language barrier. Some international students find it hard in the beginning to express themselves in English. Another aspect that a lot of people don’t take in consideration is the culture shock. “It was a big change for me when I first came to Southeastern from Russia but I managed to adapt faster by meeting people in the same situation as mine,” said Volokhova.
According to Volokhova all the activities that the ISA members are having together are entertaining. “I can’t choose something that I like the best about the time spent with my friends from ISA because everything is a good memory; bowling and movies nights, cooking at people’s houses and going to places like Oklahoma City or Dallas (Texas),” said Volokhova.