Wayne State College welcomed 75 international students for the 2024 fall semester.
While the largest portion of these students are from South Africa, some of the other countries include Mexico, Italy and Pakistan.
“It is really fun to learn a lot from our international students,” International and Cultural Programs Coordinator Elizabeth Lara said. “Wayne State is getting very diverse, so that’s pretty awesome.”
Through being involved with the International and Cultural Programs, Lara has gotten to know many of the international students and encourages others to do the same.
“A lot of students do not know that the multicultural purpose room is intended not for just international students, it is intended for anyone,” Lara said.
One of WSC’s international students is freshman Carlos Ponce. While growing up in Mexico, Ponce enjoyed mountain biking with his dad and friends. He would go biking almost every weekend and on weekdays when he could.
Ponce also enjoys traveling enough to study abroad. He decided to attend WSC for a multitude of reasons.
“When I was looking for universities, I was looking to see if I had options to go abroad,” Ponce said. “I had a couple of options, but the one that I liked most was Wayne because of the town, campus, classes and my major as well.”
While living away from home has been a big change for Ponce, he has also enjoyed living on campus. He has enjoyed meeting new people, playing sand volleyball and studying biology.
“It is really fascinating for me to study plants and animals,” Ponce said. “I would like to be a research scientist, so I would like to work in developing new crops that can withstand droughts and climate change. Anything regarding research, I am interested in it.”
Ahmad Mujtaba, a freshman originally from Pakistan, came to Wayne to study business marketing. He has found attending WSC to be a fulfilling decision. Two aspects of Wayne that he has appreciated have been his professors and resources.
“I think the professors are really nice, and it is pretty awesome that you pretty much can reach out to them anytime and they are willing to help,” Mujtaba said. “I would say any help resource is very resourceful in reality as well. Even if you reach out to the wrong people, they are going to help guide you to the right one.”
Mujtaba has also appreciated how welcoming the community, specifically the student body, has been.
“The student community is widely welcoming of the freshmen,” Mujtaba said. “Be it a senior, junior or another freshman, the community is welcoming and helpful to their fellow students to help them maintain a well-balanced social life.”
