“The United States has definitely given me a different and unique educational experience. Many things are at a larger scale such as bigger campus and big lectures.

Campuses in my native country aren’t as big as ISU. Another thing that sets education in the US differently with Malaysia’s is that the United States has so much more to offer.

The US and in ISU offers classes like American Sign Language, Human Sexuality and many more. These are courses you probably can’t find very often in Malaysia’s Undergraduate educations.

Challenges I faced during the school year consisted of making friends with local students is somewhat a challenge. There’s always an in-class friendship but it doesn’t really extend anyway more than that.

Going out of my comfort zone to join more events and clubs was one challenge as well.

However, the rewarding experiences I had this year, such as being able to meet new people because of new clubs and activities to join, was pretty rewarding.

By being able to join many different courses and clubs ISU offers that I can’t get in Malaysia, I was able to develop my own [food] recipe for 120 servings and test it out in a dining hall, which I don’t think Malaysia has such a course.

Studying in the US has definitely made me more independent. Being miles away, I didn’t have the privilege of visiting my family during breaks. This made me build my independence as I was had to deal with many things on my own.

What I’m definitely looking forward [to during break is] to finally visit my family and return back to Malaysia in the summer. I’m also looking forward to taking more advance classes next semester as I enter my junior/senior year.

If there was one thing I could change about the school year it would be I wish I could have committed more to the ISU Frisbee team as I really enjoyed practicing my frisbee skills and going on tournaments with the amazing team.

I had to leave because I couldn’t commit fully which was a shame. That would definitely be one thing I’d change if I could go back into this school year again. “

–Words by Khum Yan “Adriana” Chew, junior in culinary food science