Ryan Chartrand
Click here to read the first story in this two part series.
Cal Poly has a small amount of international students compared to other California State University schools, but has staff and student resources available to help them get acquainted with the university.
The International Education and Programs office and International Club are two of the main sources of information.
The International Club is run by students, and in addition to a beginning-of-the-year orientation and retreat, the club organizes events throughout the year – mostly hikes and potlucks, because they’re low-cost and don’t take much time or effort to put together.
Its president, computer science senior Svetlana Savelyeva, remembers her first morning in the United States very well. She moved with her family from Russia to the Bay Area when she was 17, and spoke almost no English.
“I was making breakfast for my family, that was the very first day I learned the concept of paper plates,” she said. Methodically, she placed a piece of toast and cheese on each plate before putting it in the microwave.
Later that day, on her first day in an American high school, she was given a map and tried to find the office. Fixated on the piece of paper in her hands, incomprehensible shouting broke her concentration. She looked up and saw workers on the roof above her, but naturally had no idea what they were saying. Finally, someone got a woman to help her and lead her to the office.
“There was a person who said something like ‘good afternoon’ to me the very first day,” she said. “And I understood the word ‘good’ and looked at my sister like, ‘what’s that?’ I didn’t know it was a ‘hi’ because it’s not normal for us.
“When people pass us in Russia, you don’t say ‘hi, how you doing?’ You mind your own business, and if you need to deal with a person you say ‘hello’ and deal with that person.”
Savelyeva’s family moved to Texas after two years in the Berkeley area, and she attended community college there before coming to Cal Poly three years ago.
She had heard that completing her program in four years would mean getting an average of two hours of sleep a day. True enough, she came and slept about three hours a night, but then realized a serious change had to be made.
“(I called and said) ‘Daddy, you know what, I’m going to stay for an extra year,'” she recounted. “It’s hard for him because he’s the one who pays for me – he has to pay five or six grand every quarter because it’s out of state tuition.”
Now just five weeks from graduation, Savelyeva looks back at what she calls “an awesome experience” of being involved in the International Club.
As president this year, she had the opportunity to organize events, working alongside Vice President Robert Natividad, a general engineering senior, and International Education and Programs staff including assistant director Barbara Andre.
The organizations work together to help incoming international students deal with the various forms for medical, academic, banking, employment and Visa information.
However, students are on their own for housing, which is one of the most challenging aspects. There were lots of problems with housing this year, including students staying in local hostels, Natividad said. Andre cited the expense, competition and demand for rental history as reasons for some of the difficulty these students have in finding housing.
One such student, general engineering graduate Furqan Saleemi, had an especially difficult time getting situated in San Luis Obispo.
Saleemi came to Cal Poly last September from Pakistan. Since his brother’s wedding was also in September, he arrived just one week prior to the start of classes. He had planned to live with someone else in an apartment, but the other international student wasn’t able to find one.
“I had to live for two weeks in a mosque, and that was a horrible experience for me,” Saleemi said.
“Because obviously, I was in culture shock, I was missing my family and I had to live in a mosque. It was so nice of the community that they at least gave me some place to live, but it was really difficult for me.”
The cost difference between Pakistan and the Central Coast is huge; in Pakistan, it costs less than $1,000 for a bachelor’s degree, he said. Maybe closer to $2,000 if you’re living in a hostel and eating out, but still extensively more inexpensive than in California.
Because there is no financial aid available through Cal Poly for international students, they must also show proof of having at least $27,000, the approximate cost of one year at this university. The number is high because international students pay out-of-state tuition.
“They’re paying a lot of money,” Andre said. There is a new graduate student fee waiver but it’s very minimal, she said.
In addition to finding housing, he had to adjust to the quarter system and a new diet.
“I’m unable to find halal meat in San Luis Obispo,” he said. “I’m just eating fish and vegetables for the last nine months.”
He noted the transition from Lahore, a city of more than six million, to the small city of San Luis Obispo.
“Obviously, I’m in America and I’m enjoying that feeling, that I’m outside my country, but obviously, it’s a very small town,” he said.
Two of his brothers have lived in the country for the past eight years, and his father wanted him to study in the U.S. to learn about different cultures.
“After Sept. 11 you think that maybe there will be some sort of racism against Pakistanis . but I haven’t found so much here,” he said.
He plans to graduate in summer 2008 and is hoping to get an internship before then, although it’s difficult without a green card or being a U.S. citizen.
“Sometimes I get homesick, but otherwise it’s good. It’s really a very good experience for me,” he said.