KSC Welcomes Exchange Students to Campus
Eighteen exchange students and one new matriculating student from Taiwan - Feng-Wei Kuan - join the incoming Keene State College class for the Fall semester 2010. Representing the largest group of exchange students at Keene State College in more than a decade, they have journeyed from four continents to make Keene State College their home for a semester, or more.
Three students - David Montufar, Ana Cristina Linares and Leon Lawrence Martinez - are students at Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador). Four students - Emily Edwards, Matthew Winfield, Emma Taylor and Deanne Dutton - are from York St. John University (England). Laurence Jackson and Safena Hussain come from University of Wolverhampton (England). Keene State College has exchange agreements with all three universities. There are currently several Keene State College students studying at these institutions.
Several members of the group come from other universities in the United States. They are studying at Keene State College through the National Student Exchange (NSE). The NSE exchange program provides students at its nearly 200 participating colleges and universities in the United States and Canada the opportunity to spend a semester, summer or year at a member institution. This semester, KSC is hosting the following NSE exchange students: Heather Jendro and Allison Rogers (Central Washington University), Erica Madron and Anthony Chancellor (University of Nebraska at Kearney), Abbie Bandstra (Montana State University) and Chealsea Cooke (Indiana University).
Why did these students select Keene State College? Bandstra from Montana says she’s “excited to try out East Coast living and develop new friendships.” Claire Pacheu from France said she has crossed the Atlantic to study here because “KSC seems like a really good university, with its perfect size that is not too large and not too small. It has a lot of good courses that are interesting for my area of study and the whole area seems a very beautiful place to live.”
For many of these exchange students, coming to Keene State College is the first time leaving their home country or region in the United States. Several have never been to the United States before or lived in an English-speaking environment. For a few, it will be their first time living in a residence hall. In France and Ecuador, many university students live with their families.
The KSC Global Education Office supports these international and national exchange students and serves as the campus hub for global academic programs and activities. GEO Associate Director Steven Spiegel works with international students and NSE exchange students prior to their arrival on campus to secure visas (if necessary), register for courses and answer any questions they have about life at KSC. Upon arrival, the exchange students have an intensive multi-day orientation prior to the start of the first-year and transfer student orientation, at which they learn more about life at KSC and in the United States. Activities scheduled throughout the semester, such as a barbecue at Granite Lake, apple picking, attending a baseball game, and more help to share some of the special aspects of life in Keene and the region with international and national visitors.
This semester, a new program called ‘GEO Guides’ pairs international and national exchange students with KSC students who have studied away.
