ISSS Podcast: Global Connections at USF
Episode #2: Adjusting to Life in the U.S.

Host: Hello and welcome back to Global Connections at USF where we continue our journey of exploring the diverse experiences of our international student community. I am Rashi Bhatt, graduate assistant at International Students and Scholars Services. And today we have an exciting episode lined up focusing on the international student experience as undergraduate and graduate students getting involved in on-campus programs and organizations and finding your community here at USF. Joining me first are Dani and Sanya, undergraduate students, and later on, I'll be chatting with Ify, a graduate student. 


So let's dive right in. I'd like to extend a warm welcome to our first guest. Dani Tan is the International Student Association's President and is deeply involved in fostering a diverse student community at USF. Dani, could you please introduce yourself briefly mentioning your program of study and where you're from?


Dani: Thank you so much for inviting me here, Rashi. My name is Dani. I'm a third-year psychology student and I was born and raised in Manila, Philippines.


Host: Well, let's start by discussing why you chose to come to USF all the way from the Philippines. Were there specific factors that you considered before you came here?


Dani: I used to be a student in a small high school in Manila. And from that experience, I knew that I wanted to be in a university that had smaller class sizes because this gives me a more intimate classroom experience. I also wanted to experience a community with more diversity because I do enjoy getting to know different cultures and perspectives And I like to practice keeping an open mind, especially with my major being psychology.


Host: Yes, it's definitely important to consider the diversity on the college campus as well as the greater metropolitan area as well as to use your high school experience to inform the decision you make while choosing your higher ed institution. So now let's talk a little bit about the adjustments you face coming to USF. Could you share some of your experiences and tips for academic and social adjustment as an undergraduate student, please?


Dani: One of the biggest adjustments I had to face was being apart from my family. In my culture, families are very tightly knit and it was definitely a big change going from a lifestyle where a family member can just walk into your room at random times. And a parent is holding you accountable for everything to a lifestyle where you're mostly on your own most of the time. 


And nobody is really telling you what you can or can't do. I've always enjoyed my freedom, but I was never used to having this much. So my freedom kind of felt like loneliness for a while and it was a difficult adjustment. But what helped me through this was talking about it more with myself and with the right people, this helped me put my feelings into words and understand them from a more objective perspective. Gaining insight from people with different perspectives also helps. 


Sometimes people's advice can be hard to hear. But keeping an open mind helped me work on developing a growth mindset. I did also experience academic struggles; lecture-based classes are my weakness. Initially, I tried to go against my own tide and pursue a major that was not really for me and taking classes that weren't really challenging me, but more so just discouraging me. But as soon as I put the time to discover my strengths, my weaknesses and my preferences and accept myself for those traits instead of putting myself in a box where I didn't really fit in, things did get a lot easier. It's never going to be easy and it still isn't. But I would say that my struggles have gotten more manageable since I started to be more honest with myself.


Host: Yes, truly. Thank you, Dani, for sharing your personal experiences with us before we wrap up. If you could offer one piece of advice to the newly admitted International undergraduate students, what would it be?


Dani: My one piece of advice is for you to put yourself out there by talking to people or asking for help when you need to. I can say from my personal experience that there's less regret from putting yourself out there than there is from not putting yourself out there studying abroad and being away from our families really puts us out of our comfort zone. So we might as well continue putting ourselves out there. We've already made the first step of flying out of our country, which I'm very sure was difficult for some. So we might as well continue making the most out of this opportunity. But of course, we should always remember to take care of ourselves, both physically and mentally because our health is what allows us to keep going.


Host: Yeah, that is such important advice. Thank you for your insights, Dani, and for spending your precious time with us today. We will now transition to speaking with our second undergraduate guest. Hello and welcome Sanya. Could you please introduce yourself briefly mentioning your program of study and where you're from?


Sanya: Thank you. Hi, everyone. I'm Sanya. I am from Dubai, I'm Pakistani, but I grew up there and I lived there my whole life and I'm a sociology major and a psych minor.


Host: Awesome. So to start off what was it that attracted you to USF? Was there like a specific factor that drove you to moving here and choosing a program here at USF?


Sanya: I think there were a lot of factors. I really was interested in going to a big city, which was one of the main deciding factors. I had never been to San Francisco before, but I just knew that I think it was just like the idea I had of it was there, like it would be a big city, it would be diverse. It would be beautiful. California is beautiful. And then for us specifically, I think the things that I read about it with the small class sizes, like having like research opportunities and like being able to connect with faculty. And I think I like looked into some of the professors in the sociology department as well as psych department and they all seemed like really cool and their research was really interesting. So that was mostly the reasons that I chose to come to USF.


Host: Wow. Yeah, it seems like location and class sizes has been a recurring theme. You know, USF has such diversity in the type of classes. We have, some of them are smaller, more discussion based and then also bigger lecture style classes. So it's kind of like choose your own adventure. You can see what fits best for you and your learning style and it's good that you kind of had that perspective going in. So that's really nice to hear. Let's talk a little bit about the adjustments that you face coming to USF were, was there like a big difference in your academic journey back home versus here? And then social life? Was that easy to get used to? Do you mind sharing a little bit about that?


Sanya: Yeah, I think it was definitely a big adjustment. Like, there was a lot of differences, like, first of all, I was moving away from home and then I was also, my first two years of university were done on online because of COVID. So I didn't really get like any of the social life part of it. I was just, it was strictly just like academics like zoom classes. That's it. And then I came to USF I was a junior. I wasn't living on campus. I was an international student. I was a transfer student. So I felt like I had all of these like odds up against me and like, it was just like, I even missed orientation because my family wanted to go to Vegas. So I skipped orientation through that. 


But then, I think it was definitely an adjustment period where I had to like really, really put myself out there once I was on campus and like, try to get myself involved in clubs and like, try to meet people. And the first few months were definitely really difficult to like, find people because I think I came into the headspace of like, oh everyone already has their groups of friends. So where do I fit in?  But then it was like, I started going to like more and more club events, like the cultural club events, one of my professors actually connected me to someone that became like, really one of like, one of my really good friends now. 


So I think it's just like being open to talk to people and like, just like, not like going to as many things as you can and like, keep showing up. I think that's like the, the easiest way to like, meet any group of people. And like, when you just keep showing up, you'll see this familiar faces over and over again. 


And then also with classes, I think, just try talking, like, I tried talking to the people that were sitting next to me and just like, over time like that also helped. And I think because of our, the program is so small, like a lot of people I would have repeatedly in the same classes. Like I had, I think I had three classes with the same person that were for my major. So I think that was how I got it, got myself more involved academically. I think it was, it was an adjustment like the workload and just like the types of academics that we were doing. But I think like, just getting myself more in tune with like the resources that were available to me and like, knowing that I can make most of them, like, I can make the most of like office hours and like, just if I don't understand anything, like like help was always available to me and I just needed to like, put myself out there in order to access it. Yeah. So I think that helped and I also like, really, I know a lot of people don't like the amount of like gen ed classes that we have to take. But I really enjoyed all of the different classes that I got to take. Like, I loved all of the philosophy and history and like media studies, like all of the extra courses that I got to take as part of my degree.  So I think that was really fun. 


Host: Oh yeah, thank you. I think you've shared so many valuable insights and advice and little tips for students to keep in mind. You started off with speaking about adjusting post-COVID and that's such a relatable topic for so many students. You know, in the past like five years having to transition not only to a new country but starting their higher ed programs. Moving to a new city, it can be challenging but keeping the few that you said, putting yourself out there listening to your professors about making new connections, you know, tapping into all of the resources that you have available to you. 


Those are really great tips to keep in mind. So thank you for sharing that. Before we wrap up, is there a specific cultural club or a student organization that you want to plug, so that students have those listed out and ready to participate in once they're here in the fall? 


Sanya: Yes. So two of my personal favorites and the ones that I'm most involved in are the cultural centers. The cultural center has some really, really great events, but one specifically for international students is Cafe International. It's always such a good place to just come hang out and meet other international students and talk about our like unique experiences.  And the other club is Kandaan which is a club for South Asian students. And it's also just like a fun place to like come meet, find community and just like hang out with each other and like connect over our shared culture. 


Host: Well, yeah, it sounds really good. Seems like both these student organizations and clubs foster a really robust space to have open and diverse conversation amongst the international students community. So thank you so much for sharing that with us and thank you for spending a little bit of your time speaking to us and hopefully speaking to some of the potential international students that are listening to our conversation and finding some valuable tips that they can utilize when making their journey over here to us. So thank you so much. 


Sanya: Thank you for having me.


Host: I'll now be meeting with Ifunanya Ekott to hear her perspective as a graduate student. Welcome Ify, if you could please introduce yourself briefly mention your program of study and where you're from. 


Ify: Hi, everyone. My name is Ify I'm from Nigeria and I'm in the Masters of Arts Program in International and Multicultural Education at the School of education here at USF. 


Host: So what attracted you to us f and this program could you share your perspectives as a graduate student? Or what factors you considered while finding a graduate program that fit your academic journey the best? 


Ify: Yeah, of course. Thank you for that question. While considering universities for my graduate program, it was really imperative that I saw I went to a school that had a proposed continuity. So not just a master's program, but maybe even a doctorate program that I could continue if I wanted to do that. Another thing that was a huge factor for me was the finances while graduate school in America as an international student is very pricey.


 Something that was very interesting about USF was that for grad school, the domestic and international students pay the same amount. So you're paying the same amount that the domestic students pay. So that was a perk for grad school. It's not the same for undergrads, however, so please do your research. 
This is something that I saw that was really attractive. And then finally, the last thing was the quality of professor student relationship as well as the class sizes. So as you know, us f is relatively smaller than other universities and so can accommodate smaller class sizes where you have intimate settings with your professors. And I can definitely say that that has been met in the school of education. There is great, I have great relationship and rapport with my professors and I find that my professors are extremely supportive and very accessible.


Host: Wow, thank you so much for sharing those factors. Those are really important factors that people should consider while choosing any program, especially a graduate program because it's such a big investment with your time and your finances. 14:35 So thank you for sharing that. Let's talk a little bit about the adjustment you face coming to us. If could you share some of your experiences with academic and social adjustment as a grad student and maybe balancing work and school? I know it can be a lot. 


Ify: Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. I think I'll start with the social aspects. For me, it was a little bit difficult finding a place to stay. Although we do have some good resources with off campus housing that kind of help you navigate what the housing situation is in San Francisco, I will definitely say it's important for you to do your research on the cost of living for whatever city you're going to. I definitely undershot it. And so when I got here, I was a little bit taken by surprise. but I got a lot of help from professors again who recommended, wrote a letter of recommendation to landlords and landladies. So that was really great. Another thing that was an adjustment I would say was finding a job because as an international student, you depending on what your financial situation looks like, if you are on scholarship or if you are, you know, supporting yourself, whatever it may be. It's possible that you would need a job to sustain your daily cost of living, right? 


So finding a job was a little bit difficult for me. However, I was able to find a job on campus with the learning center, which I love so much as a project success coach. And then further down, I was able to find a job at the office of sponsor programs as the grad student assistant with that though, there is a restriction of the amount of hours you can work. And so you aren't making as much as say domestic students are making. So that, that was a little bit of an adjustment. Another thing that was important or that was an adjustment was finding resources for food on campus. And luckily, we do have the food pantry for fresh produce and some food as well. So that's something that I would definitely recommend. There are also some charitable organizations, religious organizations around some of the churches in connection with ST Ignatius do also have pantries as well and there are like dates that you can check up on that. I'll switch now to the academic adjustment that was made. So I had been out of school, I would say formally for about twoish years before going for a post degree in education in Nigeria. And then a year after that, applying for school for grad school. So I think getting back to the schooling situation was a bit of an adjustment for me. And then so adjusting to graduate school requirements because at this point, it's not necessarily like a structured routine of you have classes and then you have a break and you have classes, we have classes every other week. But then in the week, we might have classes like 34 hours or sometimes like eight hours at a stretch. So the adjustment of time management was something that I had to work with. And then of course, you have the autonomy to decide on how you want your master's or doctorate to go. And so there is that pressure that is put on you to know what you're supposed to be doing. Of course, there's support from professors letting us know like you know what to do and help us streamline our passions. 


But so there is something that you have to figure out for yourself. And then of course adjusting to, I would say writing academic papers because this is academia. And so just that adjustment there as well. Yeah. 


Host: Thank you, Ify. Thank you so much for sharing your insights and experiences as a graduate student and the various forms of adjustments that you've had to go through. Before I let you go, if you could offer one piece of advice for newly admitted international graduate students. Just one quick one. 


Ify: OK, I would say, ask all the questions. Don't think that you're asking a stupid question, even if it's like, where is this building or can you direct me to this or even if it's something you think, you know, but you're unclear, just ask love that one. 


Host: "Thank you, Ify, for your valuable insights and advice. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in to 'Global Connections at USF.' Stay tuned for more enriching conversations in the episodes to come! Don't forget to follow us on Instagram @usfca.isss and share your comments, topic suggestions, and if you’d like to participate in one of our upcoming episodes!"