Freshman Xiaolei Ma, an international student from China, decided to come to DePauw because she didn’t want to go to an American university with a myriad of Chinese students. 

“I chose to go abroad because I can get a higher education, and I went to America before and I really love this place,” Ma said.  

At first anxious and scared about the prospect of coming to DePauw for college, Ma said she now feels at home here and is comfortable with her surroundings. 

International Student Orientation (ISO) week, the week prior to move-in day, is a critical element in helping international students acclimate to both the time difference and the cultural shock.  

“We do an orientation to help them adjust and know more about DePauw,” said Loutfi Jirari, director of international student services. “They attend sessions dealing with academics, immigration, wellness and others.”

Elizabeth Massoth, a senior from Henderson, Ky., is one of six International Student Ambassadors who work with students during ISO.

According to Massoth, selection of ambassadors is not based on nationality but on a “mindset.”

“I think it’s just an overall understanding of the world around you and a sensitivity to where [international students] are coming from,” Massoth said. 

As an ambassador, Massoth said her role and the purpose of ISO differ from the first-year experience program in that, “Our goal is more to help [students] integrate into American culture,” as opposed to programming that focuses on team-building.  

Ambassadors communicate with their assigned group of students over the summer to help international students prepare to make the transition to Greencastle and to field any questions students might have. 

Once on campus, Jirari said freshman international students have the opportunity to attend model classes and meet professors before school begins. This helps students understand the expectations and class work at DePauw.  

“The most exciting part was the class experience,” Ma said. “I took the computer science class, and it was awesome. I think it was better than other activities.”

In many cases, the expectations at DePauw are very different from schools in students’ native countries. DePauw buffers this change by introducing the students to various groups on campus, such as the Bonner Scholars program, before school starts. Another cultural excursion during orientation involves a day of shopping in Indianapolis. 

One of Massoth’s favorite parts about being an ambassador is the opportunity to talk and interact with international students when they first arrive on campus.  

“I got them in their raw form where I could see who they were, and they weren’t just a statistic, or someone in my class who was from a country that I didn’t know,” she said.

Massoth described working with the international students in her group and learning about one another, regardless of their differing backgrounds, as full of laughs and fun. The students she interacted with, Massoth said, are all very intelligent, and she did not consider her task of helping international students acclimate a difficult one.

“I do feel a little ‘Americanized’ after two weeks here. However, I can’t say my behavior has radically changed,” said Federico Papi, a freshman from Spoleto, Italy, in an email. “I believe that one cannot alienate himself from his environment, but at the same time he cannot abandon his roots either.”

While it’s important to introduce the students to their new surroundings and help them find resources, Massoth said a greater challenge is helping international students act outgoing in their new classes and social situations.

“One of the most frustrating things about DePauw is that we have such a large international student population and not many students take the opportunity to get to know them,” Massoth said. “It should be easier for domestic students to branch out to international students just because we’re in our element and they’re out of their element.”

Currently, 10 percent of DePauw’s campus is composed of international students.

“Overall, we have 266 international students,” Jirari said. “That’s very high compared to other liberal arts institutions.”

The current freshman class has students from 13 different countries, not including the United States. The majority of these students come from Asia and Europe.  

“When you think about it, I think that’s what DePauw is,” Massoth said, “a community of individuals searching for knowledge about the world around them… International students are a way in which DePauw is feasibly able to do that. Each one of them is a very important piece of the world brought straight here to Greencastle.”

As international students begin their year at DePauw they will continue to work with International Student Services as well as the International Student Association to help them take in the new culture around them while sharing their own culture with the DePauw community.

Massoth’s hope for the international students in her group is that they avoid being stifled by any common obstacles they may face. She would like to see them challenge members of the DePauw community to think about the world around them.

“DePauw,” Massoth said, “can be as big as the world that you came from.”