For students in UW’s international program, going to college doesn’t just mean adapting to life on their own – it also means adapting to an entirely new country.
Hannah Tickle, a graduate student studying American Studies, came to Laramie from Owslebury, a small village about 30 minutes from Southampton in southeast England. Adapting to life in the US came easy to Tickle, but there were a few problems.
“I’ve been called a communist, because my country has socialized medicine,” she said. “My policy now, unless I know where someone’s stance is on something, I just don’t air my opinions.”
While Tickle tends to avoid politics, and she thinks that having religious groups on campus is strange, she still feels blessed.
“I love Laramie. It’s in a beautiful location, the downtown is really quaint, and it’s just a quaint place all around. The people here are the nicest people in the world, they’ll try to take you home for Thanksgiving and their parents are like ‘can we adopt you.’”
Many international students feel like it’s hard to find common ground with American students. Between language barriers, limited time spent in the country, and lack of mobility, it can be very difficult for international students to make friends in Laramie.
“I don’t have a language barrier, so it’s a bit easier for me. A lot of students stick with their little clique of other international students, but I’d urge them to go out and meet Americans, because Americans have cars, which is just one perk of befriending them,” Tickle said.
UWyo Abroad Ambassador Larissa Hipp works closely with international students to make sure they have a support system. Due to Laramie’s relative isolation, and the lack of public transportation between cities nearby, international students often run into problems.
“For students without cars, getting to Cheyenne or Denver is basically impossible. So that leads to people feeling like they’re trapped in Laramie,” Hipp said.
Hipp, who studied abroad in both London and Dublin, knows firsthand the struggles that students studying abroad can face. While she lived in Europe, she had a hard time connecting with people from her host country.
“The transportation, the food, the accent, everything is different,” Hipp said. “Coming from Wyoming, the way people interact is a lot different, people are a lot more reserved. There’s a lot of new social rules to learn.”
Both Tickle and Hipp felt they were helped in their efforts to make friends by their extroverted nature, and that it could be a struggle for more bashful students to make friends. Hipp feels it’s a good idea for American students to try to reach out to international students, so that UW can foster a community.
“The existence of the [International Studies] program here is really important,” Hipp said. “It creates this great opportunity for people to learn about other cultures.”
More information about the International Studies program is available at their offices in Cheney Hall and at UWyo.edu/uwyoabroad.
