Collegiate Times

Orientation for regular students may have ended, but orientation for international students is just beginning.

Virginia Tech's incoming international students started to arrive Monday, Aug. 4, and Cranwell International Center  has a whole slew of activities lined up to run through Aug. 22. CIC, located on the west side of Clay Street, is the veritable headquarters for international students - straight from the airport, the CIC helps students find transportation or ferries them with a van. It assists with finding housing, with obtaining a social security number and with any visa issues. It even maintains a 24/7 emergency cell for students.

Some of the orientation activities that the CIC plans includes a dinner with an American family to gently acclimate students to American culture, a Cascades hike and a Claytor lake picnic to show students America's vast and beautiful landscapes, a tax information session to teach students about America's tax service and how to not get audited, and even grocery shopping in America.

While the statistics of this year's international students has yet to be compiled, CIC's administrative assistant Karen Wills assured me that they remain fairly consistent from year to year. Last fall, Virginia Tech hosted 2,151 international students: 1,724 graduates and 427 undergraduates. These students represented 112 countries, with a little more than half of the students coming from China, India and South Korea. Tech was also home to 35 Iranians - the pursuit of knowledge surmounting transient politics.

Abimbola 'Bebe' Onasoga, a senior chemical engineer and an orientation volunteer for the CIC, left Nigeria four years ago to come to the states and get what she called a more "practical, hands-on" education.

While she began her education in Oklahoma, she found the chemistry program too easy. She wanted more of a challenge, so she turned her eye to some of the more technical schools. Once she reached this stage, she admitted that she randomly picked Tech.

One of the biggest shocks she faced wasn't exactly a culture shock, but more of a language shock. She said that, because of her accent, many Americans would speak overly loud or slow, treating her as if she were ignorant or dumb.

However, she said that she was surprised how nice Americans were, despite hearing otherwise. Another major difference was the cold; being from the tropics, she wasn't used to the biting wind of Tech's Drillfield.

In fact, Onasoga said that the biggest issues that new international students face aren't exotic or even that exciting. Rather, students usually wonder where to get something to eat that they can adapt to easily. Or how to contact home and their parents.  Or even just how to get around.

Curious, I asked whether students worry whether they'll need to go shopping for new clothes, about fitting in on the basis of their threads. Onasoga said it wasn't an issue.

"Cultures are blending," she said, noting that, except for her formal ceremonial-type clothes, her wardrobe from Nigeria fit right in.