Deirdre Fraser is from
Jamaica. She is now in her junior year
at Bryant University. “I’m attending Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode
Island and my major is Management and Economics. There is an educational service in Jamaica the owner she goes to
different universities all over the states so what I did I went to her and said
I want to study business preferably management and she gave me a list of
schools that I should consider and basically from narrowing it down whether its
calling them or going online I narrowed it down to eleven and Bryant was one of
them and I choose Bryant.”
In order to experience other
opportunities and to broaden her horizon she decided to leave home and come to
the United States. “I decided to come
to the United States just to get a better experience because if I’d stayed and
studied in Jamaica I would only learn about the Caribbean and Jamaica itself
and just how business is there,” she says.
“But branching out myself to come
to the U-S I learn about different cultures.
I learn about different things all over the world and not only in the
U-S and not only in Jamaica,” she says.
“So it was more for opportunity than for my advancement.”
Some of the opportunities and
things that she enjoys have been… “It’s been quite an experience. The bet thing I love about the university is
that the classes are small so I get more the one on one attention, everyone
here is friendly and the staff really like makes sure you are their center of
attention no matter what it is so, I
always get good grades, I excel and involved with a lot,” she says.
“Right now I am an Resident
Assistant on campus and also the president of AIDS and National Student
Organization. Members of various organizations such as the Multi-cultural
Student Union, Italian American Association, Economic Student Association and
the list goes on,” she says.
“So everyone is concern with how
well I am excelling in class and succeeding as a person so that is the main
concern of mine.”
Deirdre says from the weather to the food to the way she spells
different words those are things she has become more aware of since being in
the U-S. “One of the major thing in is
the weather. I obviously not like doing things like that so that is one of the
things. I also grew up learning under
the British educational system. So even
learning how to spell other words like color, at home I spell it colour, here I
have to spell it color or there is this pronunciation of certain things I have
to be aware of like I say cha-racter, here it is character,” she says. “Things like that I had to be aware of. I won’t be able to get my native food, but I
least I know that there are places nearby where I can get it.”
In one of her classes, Deirdre says
she is learning about other countries and how they govern themselves, which is
something she would not have learned at a university back home. “Right now I am taking International
Marketing and I’m learning about so many different countries and how they do
relations and just like if I was home I would not learn that,” she says. “I would probably learn how the British do,
their marketing or how different islands might do marketing, but that is about
it. Here I will learn about Russia,
China, and India I would learn about the U-S and different countries in Africa
doing so it is just my advancing like
learning how different countries do different businesses and give me a better
opportunity to be absorb, like even work abroad so I think that is the
benefit.”
May 2010 is when Deirdre says she
will be eligible to graduate. She would like to stay here and gain some work
experience. Her advice to other
students living abroad that are interested in coming to the United States
is...This is an experience of a lifetime and this is not something that I only
tell just Jamaicans, but any student that is interested in coming to the U-S,
it is an experience of a lifetime,” she says.
“The administrative staff focuses on you. Students like leaders on campus they focus on you. If you need to get somewhere you need to get
off campus and you don’t know how you can do that, although they have
transportation here you can go to anyone here.
Everyone is looking out for your best interests whether it is in the
classroom or outside of the classroom there is always someone there looking
after you and you never feel that you will be out of the loop.”