Zlatinova chairs Woodbridge’s support committee, which runs the mentor program and oversees the three-day Freshman International Program (FIP).

Coming from Romanian classrooms where she struggled sometimes to get academic guidance, Pacurar says she likes how at Harvard, “resources are extremely available.”

However, Pacurar found the Core Curriculum surprising: “I didn’t expect that there would be mandatory classes.”

M. Suzanne Renna, acting director of the Bureau of Study Counsel, says issues can also arise if students aren’t speaking in their own language.

“Language kind of defines the ways in which you can express yourself, emotionally as well as intellectually,” she says. “Sometimes you feel as if you can’t truly be yourself or be known for yourself.”

Most international students say that adjusting to these differences is an individual process.

“You have to realize everyone’s making adjustments, some more than others, some things...you need to do on your own,” Nkyekyer says.

Alexander Arapoglou ’06, who hails from Greece, says this adjustment isn’t exclusive to international students.

“We’re all adults, we’ve come to a place we’ve never been to before,” he says. “We all go through the same things.”

Pacurar says she found solace in the friends she made.

“You have to do a really good job of finding the friends that you need, maybe they remind you of what you left behind while at the same time being here,” she says.

INTERNATIONAL AID

The Bureau of Study Counsel has offered counseling workshops for international students in the past, but they did not generate much appeal, Renna says.

“If you’re a Chinese student you can join the Chinese association, you don’t necessarily need to come here for that,” she says. “International students don’t see it as a concern in being an international student, the concern is with adjusting to being here.”

Instead, Renna says they prefer to join groups that aren’t exclusive to international students.