USD Magazine, Summer 1999

awor erience Fish tacos, flip-flops and footba games may be amiliar to most students, but they can be a perplexing lot for the one out of every 20 USD students who hails from another country. Yet experiencing the things that make Southern California and Alcala Park unique is exactly what entices them. B Y }I LL WAGNER '91

When Carlos Dominguez walked into his first class at USO, he couldn't believe his eyes. Men settled into desks wearing shorts and sandals, ballcaps pulled low over their foreheads. Women sipped sodas as they opened notebooks. And the professor casually sat on the corner of the desk, chatting with a student. In Caracas, Venezuela, where Dominguez grew up, dressing down, eating or talking in class were considered signs of disrespect. Stunned, the 24-year-old engineering student took a seat. With– in minutes, though, he realized he wasn't in a class run amok. He was simply undergoing a small bout of culture shock. "Here, the interaction with teachers is like with your peers," Dominguez says. "Almost everybody walks in with sodas and chips, then starts eating. I thought, 'What is going on here?' ,, Dominguez' experience isn't unique. One of every 20 students enrolled at USO hails from another country, with 62 nations in all represent– ed. While they adjust to different styles in the classroom, students must also grapple with start– ing a life in a country where everything from the language to food is foreign. Yet exactly those

things that can drive them mad - trying to understand Eng– lish slang or biting into their first fish taco - draw them to an American education. "They take advantage of things you or I wouldn't because we've lived here so long," says Yvette Fontaine, director of international

resources, the office that guides foreign students in everything from finding an apartment to deal– ing with homesickness. "They want to see and experience everything." And they end up at USO for many of the same reasons that lure any student: Small class sizes, peaceful campus, an assortment of student activities and the Southern California climate. Joerg lneichen, a junior from Lucern, Switzerland, knew he wanted an undergraduate and master's degree from a United States university, and he was interested in a small West Coast school. Born and raised Catholic, he immediately focused on Pepperdine and USO after learning about the schools from a Zurich agency. "USO felt warmer than Pepperdine," says lneichen, who visited the campuses after being accepted to both schools. "And the city of San Diego is much nicer than Los Angeles."

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