![\"\"](\"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/10\/Indian-Celebration-at-SAU-FA18-sm.jpg\")
<\/a>SAU faculty and staff members join students from India on October 24, 2018, at the SAU Global Center in a celebration of international culture.<\/p><\/div>\n
SAU has long been known as a global campus, but has expanded its reach into several more countries. Nhut An Tran, a freshman computer science major, comes to SAU from Vietnam. He learned about SAU through a Facebook group that shared information about scholarship opportunities abroad. \u201cSince my family can only afford so much on tuition, food and accommodations, SAU was the most viable option,\u201d Tran said. He received a Presidential Scholarship from SAU. Tran chose Computer Science because he has always been proficient in technology. \u201cIn Vietnam, I joined the Programming Club and enjoyed it. I pursued (computer science) in grades 11-12, and have chosen it for my major.\u201d\u00a0 Tran has joined SAU\u2019s Math and Chess Clubs and enjoys the atmosphere of Magnolia. \u201cI expected it to be drastically different than Ho Chi Minh City,\u201d he said.\u00a0 Temitope Aramide Moshood, a freshman Biology\/Pre-nursing major from Ikorodu, Nigeria, first heard about SAU from a family friend who graduated two years ago. \u201cShe said that it is a very nice school and helped me do my application online,\u201d Moshood said.\u00a0 The atmosphere of the University appeals to Moshood because she came here wanting a change in her environment. \u201cI come from a large city, but it feels like home here,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s so quiet and I have more time to myself.\u201d She appreciates having students from other countries and cultures at SAU. \u201cI\u2019m learning to speak Spanish here; that\u2019s fun,\u201d she said. \u201cIn my dorm, there are students from eight other countries, including England, Portugal and Brazil. We are all learning from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n If anyone is looking for a university that holds great values, ambition and drive to be successful, then SAU is for you. I feel as if I am at a home away from home.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Serena Gill, a Business Administration major from Wolverhampton, United Kingdom, is a member of the new women\u2019s tennis team. A lifelong resident of the UK, Gill was approached by Coach Greg Owen about SAU tennis. \u201cThis made me extremely attracted to SAU as there was a clear desire to excel in the future,\u201d she said.\u00a0 Other universities had approached her before she chose SAU. Gill calls the University \u201cone big family. I couldn\u2019t ask for better teammates or classmates. If anyone is looking for a university that holds great values, ambition and drive to be successful, then SAU is for you. I feel as if I am at a home away from home.\u201d<\/p>\n It expands our American students\u2019 education as well as our international students\u2019 education to build relationships with people from various backgrounds, cultures and diversity<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Part of the mission of SAU is to prepare students for the global job market. \u201cHelping them build connections and friendships across the globe is a big part of accomplishing that mission,\u201d Berry said.<\/p>\n Members of SAU’s reestablished tennis teams walk the campus on the first day of the fall 2018 semester. Pictured, from left, are Serena Gill, from Wolverhampton, UK; Yuri Gondouin, from Chambourcy, France; Lena Milosevic, from Serbia; Atif Sheikh, from the United Arab Emirates; and Jonathan Gilmore, from Midlothian Texas.<\/p><\/div>\n SAU is making a more concerted effort to recruit students from around the world. Members of SAU\u2019s International Office have made trips overseas, visiting high schools and making contacts in a dozen countries \u201cto help work with us on a personal level,\u201d Berry said.\u00a0 He and Dr. Katherine Berry are also exploring the possibility of taking recruitment trips next year to Japan, China and South Korea. Kansai University in Japan will be a focus of one of those trips. SAU is also developing its student exchange programs, particularly with England and Spain.\u00a0 It is vital for the University to have a strong international presence. \u201cIt expands our American students\u2019 education as well as our international students\u2019 education to build relationships with people from various backgrounds, cultures and diversity,\u201d Berry said.<\/p>\n Jason Martisek, associate director of international services and admissions, said SAU has a lot to offer students from overseas, and the University continues to reach out to potential students. Recent international recruitment efforts have focused on South Korea. Lorinda Crump, assistant director of international student development, recently returned from a trip to South Korea where she toured English as a Second Language (ESL) high schools and spread the word about SAU as a higher education option.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m hopeful the counselors I met and spoke with at those schools will direct students to SAU,\u201d Crump said.<\/p>\n SAU has historically had a high number of international students, though numbers have decreased over the past year, particularly among students from India. However, the University continues to enjoy a high rate of diversity. This semester, Martisek said, SAU has more than 300 international students enrolled. \u201cWe are doing extremely well,\u201d he said of diversity at SAU.<\/p>\n Petr Kandidatov, director of the ESL program at SAU, said there are currently nine international students in his ESL program. \u201cThey come from quite diverse backgrounds,\u201d Kandidatov said, \u201cincluding Cameroon, India, Japan\u00a0and Vietnam.\u201d\u00a0 The program emphasizes the low student\/teacher ratio at SAU, which provides for more personalized feedback from professors and a feels-like-home, anxiety-free environment that facilitates learning and adjustment to U.S. culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Southern Arkansas University continues to grow its academic reputation on a global scale as this year the University is home to not only students from 73 of 75 counties in Arkansas, but also from 40 states and 41 countries around the world. \u201cOur increased international student population and geographic diversity make SAU a truly global… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":564,"featured_media":7055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[271,94,140,181,207,308,32641,7753,288,143],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-academics","8":"category-admissions","9":"category-college-of-business","10":"category-education","11":"category-college-of-liberal-performing-arts","12":"category-college-of-science-and-technology","13":"category-featured-layout","14":"category-homepage","15":"category-regional-news","16":"category-student-life","17":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/564"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>