Pakistan Global Exchange Student Asghar Spending Semester at Keene State

It’s never easy to come to a new school – especially when that school is located around the world rather than around the block. Arriving at Keene State College this semester from her home in Pakistan, Masooma Asghar felt like a nervous student walking into a classroom for the first time.

“I can’t hide it – it was scary. I didn’t know what to expect,” said Asghar, a senior architecture major who came to Keene State from the National University of Sciences and Technology in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. “But it’s been great so far.”

Unlike the majority of global exchange students, who come to Keene State through reciprocal agreements with colleges and universities around the world, Asghar comes through a special program. She is one of just 119 from a pool of over 6,000 applicants from Pakistan who were accepted to the highly competitive Global UGrad program – a global undergraduate exchange program run through the US Department of State that provides semester- and year-long scholarships to outstanding undergraduate students from underrepresented sectors in Asia, the Near East, and the Western Hemisphere.

In addition to Asghar, 10 global exchange students are visiting Keene State this semester, including one from Japan and one from France. Conversely, 62 KSC students are studying abroad, traveling to schools from Australia and the Czech Republic to Chile and Iceland. According to Keene State’s Global Education Office, more than 90 percent of KSC students who have studied abroad have described it as “one of the best experiences in their lives.”

Outside her country for the first time, Asghar has spent her time wisely, not only taking classes, but soaking up all the experiences that come with being a student at Keene State. “If I was back home I wouldn’t care about many of the extracurricular things because I was familiar with them. But here I like to go to everything happening around campus because I’m here for the experience as well,” she said. “I want to take in as much as I can.”

While Asghar says the material in her two architecture courses at Keene State is similar to that at her home university, she is quick to point to some of the discrepancies between being a student in her country versus in America. In Pakistan, there are more instructors in the classroom and, for security reasons, the university is limited to a nine-to-five schedule. Socially speaking, Pakistan students don’t wait until the weekend to go out with friends. Asghar emphasizes that Pakistan does have a modern side, brought about through globalization.

In addition to learning about America, Asghar in her own small way is acting as an ambassador for her homeland, answering questions and dispelling many of the misconceptions about her country while giving students and the Keene State community an opportunity to learn more about Pakistan, the South Asian country that gained its independence from the partition of India in 1947.

“We have a wonderful campus and community and the students that show up here feel very welcome,” said Steven Spiegel, associate director of the Global Education Office at KSC. “But unfortunately, we don’t have students from as diverse areas as we wish – both domestically and internationally – so Masooma brings wonderful insight and exposure to Pakistan for other people.”

Asghar says Keene State students have been very receptive and inquisitive, wanting to know more about her country. “There’s an initial fear how people are going to judge you, but the Keene State community has been completely opposite to what I expected,” she said. “People really get interested if you tell them something they don’t know about. When I get a positive reaction, it makes me feel special. It makes me feel like I am a part of something bigger – something that’s important that’s going to lead to more than just an exchange. Every day is like a new experience because every day someone is going to ask something new. It’s great to tell them something and see them get excited.”

It’s also been an introspective trip in many ways for Asghar, who’s answering not only questions for Keene State students, but also ones about herself. “I knew I would be questioning a lot of my principles and a lot of things that I believe in through this program,” she added. “What I keep on telling people back home is: there is no such thing as a comfort zone. I get amazed when I think of home and how much of a protective environment I was living in. But that doesn’t mean I’m not adjusting. It’s actually allowed me the opportunity to question myself, who I am, where I want to go, and what I want to do. I like how my trip to America is bringing that out in me as well.”

Asghar’s life has been a series of adjustments. Having a father who worked closely with the country’s military, she was a seasoned traveler in her own country, attending 12 different schools through high school. Currently living in Rawalpindi, a city in the northern Pothohar region about 30 minutes outside of Islamabad, Asghar (much to the chagrin of her mother, who wanted her to study medicine and become a doctor) decided to pursue a degree in architecture. “It’s a huge field for women in Pakistan,” she said. “There are seven boys in my class and the rest are girls.”

According to Asghar, the people of Pakistan tend to march to the beat of their own drum, often disregarding regulations and rules, and, while not in denial, have become desensitized to the constant threat of war and terrorism happening on the outskirts of their country. “It’s not like there are bullets flying all over the place when you open the door,” she said. “It’s really pretty safe.”

Vaguely remembering her country’s reaction following the 9-11 attacks, Asghar said the threat of war and terrorism really hit home when she asked her university professor for approval and security clearance to take a trip with her classmates. “She told me we are in a state of war and things are only going to get worse,” said Asghar. “That’s when it really hit me.”

Asghar’s professor proved to be clairvoyant. On Dec. 16, 2014, two weeks before her trip to America, a terrorist attack at an army public school in Peshawar shook the entire country. Asghar, who had attended the same school for four years, was shaken up by the event and considered cancelling her trip. “I didn’t want to leave home. It was not easy for me,” she said. “However, crying and tears doesn’t help at all.”

Asghar said the survivors of the attack are not forgotten. Her university’s fine arts club started a drive to collect letters online (tinyurl.com/dearsurvivor) that are sent to survivors of the tragedy. Speaking at a recent presentation at the Young Student Center, she said that one of her friends went to India (a country that has traditionally been in conflict with Pakistan) and brought back a suitcase full of letters for the survivors.

Students in the Global UGrad program don’t pick the US college or university they will attend, but are assigned to schools like Keene State that apply for the US State Department grant. Asghar didn’t know her destination until a month before her trip.

After learning her destination, she did her homework, finding out about the College she would be calling home for the spring semester. She also contacted Yasha Nezier Butt, a student from Pakistan who studied at KSC last year, and who put in a good word about the College. “She said the school is really good and told me that the feta cheese omelets in the Dining Commons are awesome,” said a smiling Asghar. “It was all good and nothing bad.”

Enjoying her time at Keene State despite the snow and the cold weather, Asghar says her time at the College and in America has flown by much too quickly. “It’s been a really nice experience and I want it to slow down,” she said. “It’s been two months and I want to do more and take advantage of the opportunity, because in a blink of an eye it will be gone. I haven’t been here long, but it’s becoming to feel like home. I’d never thought I’d say that.”