I experienced being an international student when I came to the U.S. to obtain my Ph.D. degree at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). I certainly believed that this opportunity abroad would place me ahead of the very competitive application process to become a professor in my home country, Brazil. I consider myself a person who is very close to family and friends, and making the decision to move to a different country was hard to do because it meant being far away from my loved ones. However, I am glad that I moved to San Antonio because it has a greatly diverse population group and a strong Hispanic heritage. Although the Tejano culture is different from mine, the mixture of Tejano and the American cultures was a good start for me. It was certainly interesting, and I was exposed to a diverse group of people that I have never interacted with before. In regard to my studies, my classes at UTSA were with mostly Chinese and Iranian students and very few local students. Most of the international students did not have cars, reason why we took any opportunity for free, on-campus events. I kept seeing the same colleagues that I had classes with during my Ph.D. journey. I think our campus had a good venue to allow us to meet in other settings outside of classes, but I am going to admit that it takes a lot of effort by taking the first step and start a conversation.
I was so surprised to realize that I had so much in common with both my Chinese and Iranian colleagues. It did not take long for me to start watching Korean dramas and listening to Chinese pop songs. I am very passionate about football, and my Iranian friends were also very interested in the sport. To be honest, every international student that would join our group was really into football (soccer) and knew a lot about Brazilian teams. The World Cup season was very interesting as well, as we would all share our streaming websites and text each other about results. As I started learning more about their culture, I also taught them some of mine. I would stop by their offices and ask them to accompany me for a coffee break. For us, Brazilians, that means our social time, in which we sip a bit of coffee and talk for hours. They quickly understood that we would spend at least one hour sitting in the coffee shop’s backyard chatting and laughing, we enjoyed our coffee breaks together with local students, and students from Africa and Nicaragua. They are still very good friends of mine. My experience would not be complete if I did not make local friends, so I decided to join clubs, and I tried several.
I absolutely encourage you, as an international student, to join a sports club. That one you pick first might not be the best one, but keep trying. I can say that my triathlon club became my family in Texas. They would cheer me up even though I was the last runner to complete a 5k. They were there for me all the time, and they made me feel welcomed. I belonged to the team and to that family. It was an amazing experience. I believe sports really connect people, in our case other than sports, we did not have much in common. We were not pursuing the same field in our careers, and I think the tough experience and the pain from the exercises are what really united us all. We understood our struggles, so we focused more on what we had in common rather than our differences. I absolutely love the friendship I developed with this group, and I will take it for the rest of my life.
Author and Invited Collaborator:
Dr. Lamas is a Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at the University of Kentucky – Paducah Extended campus. Her research experience includes photochemical processes and applications of mathematical and statistical methods applied to engineering, study of bacterial communication, prevention of biofilms and toxins by Microcystis aeruginosa PCC 7806. She has over 10 years of experience in Water and Wastewater treatment research, but she is currently focusing on Engineering Education, more specifically in developing an undergraduate course of Biofilms for engineers. She is passionate about Diversity & Inclusion, and she is actively involved with Outreach opportunities.
