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TRU: It's a small world after all

Rebekah Hammond - Science & Tech Editor

Despite TRU's modest size, it's student population is a mosaic of nationalities.

There are 1,270 students from over 70 countries registered in TRU's 2010 winter semester.

Business accounting student Sija Mafulela is an international student and one of the 22 students from Zimbabwe.

"I have enjoyed studying in Canada," he said. "I have had the opportunity to meet and make friends from other countries and I have had the opportunity to experience some of the things Canadians are proud of."

Mafulela always wanted to study internationally.

"I knew that I wanted to study my degree in North America but was not sure where," he said. "After looking at the requirements to coming to Canada, I knew that I could meet the university entry requirements and so I chose Canada. I also considered that Canada was a stable democratic country."

TRU has seen several generations of international students come through its doors.

"TRU, then the University of the Cariboo College, has been bringing students to the campus for 26 years, since 1984," said Vera Wojna, interim associate vice president of TRU World. "The very first students came from Hong Kong. There was also a student group from Libya, funded by their Ministry of Education. Shortly after, students came from Japan and Taiwan."

Currently, there are 33 students from Hong Kong, 29 from Japan and 72 from Taiwan.

Over the years, TRU has made connections with many more countries.

"We have over 60 institutional bilateral institutional partnerships for exchange and transfer students as well as hundreds of overseas associates and education counselling agencies who share information about TRU to students and families," Wojna said. "We work with the Canadian embassies as well as the Ministries of Education around the world."

Chinese students compose the largest demographic, there are 394 of them on campus. Saudia Arabian students are the second largest with 260 and India the third with 106.

It's not just the large countries students come from, however, there are students from smaller places like Jordon, Bhutan and Mauritius - a small island in the Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometers east of Madagascar.

"Having so many international students on campus enriches the campus for everybody. It allows us to experience different cultures of the world and gives us the opportunity to become more inclusive and understand it as a gift," said Dan Geddert who interacts with international students on a weekly, sometimes daily basis.

Geddert is a TESL student and an adult sponsor of the TRU student group F.O.C.U.S Club. Their name is an acronym standing for Fellowship of Overseas University Students.

"It's a Christian club open to all students regardless of ethnic and religious background," Geddert said. "We gather resources from the churches of Kamloops and serve international students in any way we can. We arrange activities and events, form unconditional friendships and help with ESL."

Inviting international students to TRU provides a unique learning environment not only for the foreign students, but domestic ones as well.

"Students leave TRU with friends and potential future business associates from around the world," Wojna said. "We have a 'virtual United Nations.' It is an exchange — we learn and gain as much as we share"