Hamline values our international students for what they bring to our campus—diversity, global perspective, cultural respect, and determination. Hamline is committed to building a global learning community as international students provide diverse perspective and intercultural awareness. Both international students and domestic students are able to learn from one another, and most importantly, understand each other, according to the director of the Global Engagement Center, Kari Richtsmeier.

Chris Dijkman Dulkes is an international student attending his last year of college. He is a student from Leiden University in Netherland, who is majoring in International Relations there. Dulkes notices a positive difference in the way people interact here at Hamline in comparison to his home university.

  “I like that there’s more of a community atmosphere than my home university,” said Dulkes. “I feel like people here are more obliging and attentive. Something that is very different is that people here mostly aren’t direct, but try to be nice or passive.”

Senior, Jenni Mazur is an international student from Trier University in Germany. Mazur is majoring in Media Studies at Trier University, and is seeking a certificate in International Journalism—a program Hamline offers that allows students to gain interpersonal growth experience within the media industry. Just like Dulkes, Mazur notices a difference in how Americans interact.

“Something that was new to me was that people here in Minnesota would sometimes just walk up to you and start a conversation. Even if you don’t know each other!” said Mazur. “I really love this openness here. In Germany, people are a bit more distanced. They’re still friendly, but it takes more time until they’re more comfortable around you, I’d say.”

Despite the cultural differences on how people interact, most international students are able to adapt easily to the community and feel at ease.

“People are really friendly and really helpful, and I really like being here,” said Hanna Järvi, an international student attending her last year in college. Järvi is from Espoo, Finland, currently majoring in Accounting.

“I also expected that school is like the huge thing for Americans, but I didn’t expect [this] lot. People are actually really motivated to go to class, and professors are—oh, I really love them! They actually learn student’s names, and it’s just so different from Finland,” Järvi said.

While the majority of European countries offer free college education, many Hamline international students study abroad because of the variety of programs and resources Hamline offers that benefit their interest of study.

“The university system in the U.S. is far better than what we have in Albania and in most European countries, I’d say,” said Sherina Dyrma, an international student from Elbasan, Albania attending her first year of college.

Dyrma is double majoring in Biomedical Engineering and Physics. “I wanted that opportunity to get an education and more opportunities after the education as well,” she said.

One of the programs, formerly known as the International and Off-campus Programs Office and now known as the Global Engagement Center, invites all students to attend the Global Retreat. This year’s event will focus on intercultural communication, include various workshops and activities and allow students to share and learn global perspectives. This event takes place on Thursday, Oct. 27, and Friday, Oct. 28. The deadline for this event was on Sept. 30.

The Global Retreat is among the many programs Hamline offers for its students. These kinds of programs were designed to benefit students by learning global perspectives and engaging in intercultural communication. With these benefits, students can understand, communicate and engage successfully with the world.

Global Compliance and Risk Management Specialist Chris Kipp explains why the Global Engagement Center and studying abroad is beneficial for international students.

“It’s a great opportunity. They [international students] may be from a place where they don’t quite have the access that we do here whether it’s through resources or libraries, professors or just freedom to express and freedom to learn,” said Kipp. “It’s a huge pull for students to come study here.”

Kipp goes on in explaining how students are able to have fun, meet new people and have the opportunity to live in a new country.

“One thing that most people don’t normally know is that every single event that our office does is actually inclusive to both domestic and international students. The majority of the stuff that we do is largely international students, [but] because of the other things that are going on, it’s hard to get other people to realize that they can go to these events as well,” Kipp said.

For more information about the Global Engagement Center and their events, contact them by phone at 651-523-2245 or via email: gec@hamline.edu.