By Samantha Berkhead
Managing Editor
Many see St. Bonaventure as a homogenous, typically Catholic university in Western New York.
They don’t, however, notice the growing percentage of a diverse international community on campus.
According to sbu.edu, students at St. Bonaventure come from 38 different countries not including the U.S.
Jeanette Dietrich, a junior journalism and mass communication major from Germany, came across Bonaventure by chance.
“I didn’t grow up planning to come to the States,” she said. “There’s this organization, Scholarbook, in Germany that helps German athletes find scholarships in the States and I got offers, so somehow I ended up here. (Swimming and diving Head Coach Seth Johnson) always told me about how Bonaventure is like a family, so that appealed to me. I also wanted to be a journalist, and Bonaventure has a good journalism school.”
Dietrich said her hometown, Dorsten, is similar to Olean in that it has a small-town atmosphere. As a result, she didn’t have a hard time adjusting to life abroad.
“When I first came here, I wasn’t shocked,” she said. “I didn’t have this huge culture shock that people talk about. But it’s the little things, like the sports and the food, that are different. It’s not a major difference, but all the little things together add up.”
When Dietrich starts to miss home, her friends and family are just a Skype call away.
“I’m normally really good about being homesick,” she said. “I Skype with friends a lot. Social media makes it so easy to communicate that I’m not really homesick at all.”
Sophomore finance major Vatslav Lets keeps in contact with his family in Novosibirsk, Russia the same way. He said he doesn’t get homesick, however.
“I’m not a 15-year-old girl, I know what I came here for,” he said. “There are some things you have to get over. (My family and I) Skype a couple times a month.”
Sophomore psychology major Rachel Bull said her choice to come to Bonaventure from England happened at the last minute.
“I signed up for English universities and went through that whole process, but then I thought about it more — I knew a few people who had come out here to study — and my parents said, ‘Why don’t you do just it?’” she said. “I just decided to give it a go, come over here for a year and defer my spot (in an English university) for a year, just to see what the experience would be like.”
Like Dietrich, Bull found an agency that helps set up English student-athletes with study opportunities in the U.S.
“(Johnson) contacted me, and I liked this school the best because of its small campus,” she said. “That’s what made me want to go here — I like the on-campus atmosphere, and the coach was actually nice.”
Bull comes from Bromley, a suburb of London, one of the biggest cities in the world — a place with a vast urban sprawl that dwarfs rural Olean.
“It’s a lot different,” she said. “I like living in the city, but I also like it here. When I first came here, I did get a culture shock. The British have a weird sense of humor, and even the way people value things is different. If I didn’t have close friends here, it would be a lot more difficult. I feel like you need people around you (when living in another country).”
She also said she didn’t want to go to a university where students go home on weekends like most students in the UK.
“I had offers from other schools (in the U.S.), but one of the problems was that most students went home on the weekend, and I didn’t want to be the international kid left by herself,” she said.
Bull’s family travels over the Atlantic to see her compete in swim meets, she said. However, she said she’s more independent from her parents because of English culture.
“In England, the family is a lot different,” she said. “Here, families are very close, but a lot of people in England just let their kids go at age 18, because that’s when we become adults.”
Senior journalism and mass communication major Kathryn Kvas comes from Mississauga, Ontario — just a few hours’ drive from Bonaventure.
“It’s pretty similar to the States, since it’s so close to the border,” she said. “But of course, there are a few differences, like food serving sizes and a more diverse demographic than Olean.”
Despite being relatively close to home, Kvas said she thinks her time in the U.S. has enhanced her college experience.
“It’s given me great perspective on how America, which is a world of difference from Canada, is run, and what the nation’s viewpoints are,” she said. “It’s also given me a great opportunity to work in the States, something my Canadian friends back home don’t have.”
Lets, a member of the men’s swimming and diving team, knew he wanted to study in America a few years before he graduated high school.
“I had a recruiting agent who basically recruited me at different schools. I picked the best one — D1 athletics, a good business school, good scholarships — those are all factors that made me come here. I wanted to use my skills in something I spend time on and get an education.”
Lets said he intends to stay in the United States after graduation.
“In a perfect world, I’d like to get a job in New York City, in the finance sector,” he said.
Conversely, Dietrich said she hopes to return home.
“I think I’m going to go back to Germany, just because I’ve been gone for so long,” she said. “Obviously I’d like to do something with journalism, but I don’t know what yet.”
