Voices of the International WWC Community
James Grajales | March 10, 2022
Quinn Bonney
Han teaching a class in Jensen.
Coming to a new country is a big step for many people. Warren Wilson College (WWC) hosts 24 international students and five faculty members from different parts of the world.
For students coming to the U.S. to study, there has been a lot of adjustment. Janika Pylvanainen, a student from Jyväskyl, Finland, has come to major in social work.
“I wanted to experience the college life here,” Pylvanainen said. “Because back home it's really different. Here it’s like a totally different community.”
Pylvanainen was born in Arlington, Texas, but her family moved back to Finland when she was four years old. Coming back to the U.S. in January 2020 has been a fresh experience.
Pylvanainen has seen both small and significant differences since coming to Warren Wilson. When it came to socialization, Pylvanainen talked about differences in conversations.
“We don’t have small talk back home,” Pylvanainen said.
After little time in the U.S., Pylvanainen is looking forward to making the most of her opportunities here.
“People are a lot nicer than I thought they would be,” she said.
She isn’t the only student coming to America experiencing differences. Habib Ghalab from Alexandria, Egypt, has come to Warren Wilson to major in biochemistry. Ghalab wasn’t able to achieve that dream back home.
“I wanted to be a surgeon specifically,” Ghalab said. While attending nursing school in Egypt, Ghalab was accepted by the U.S. Embassy to study in the U.S. “Then when I heard the embassy had accepted me, I came here to achieve my dreams to become a surgeon,” she said.
Ghalab said the hardest part of adjusting to life in the U.S. was being so far from her family, though Ghalab did find comfort from this in her faith.
“When I came here, it made me closer to God,” she said.
Coming to the U.S. has been a dream for Ghalab and she is taking great advantage of the opportunity to study here.
“I want to be outstanding, I want to get a 4.0 (GPA) if possible,” she said.
Of the five faculty from abroad, Dongping Han, Ph.D., a professor of history at Warren Wilson, has been here the longest.
Born and raised in Jimo county in the Shandong province on the east coast of China, Han came to the U.S. in August 1990 to become an educator, eventually coming to join the Warren Wilson staff in 2000.
The Chinese government encouraged Han to get his doctorate in the U.S. because he was one of the few people who had a master’s degree. He was expected to study business, but decided to study history.
“Some people tried to convince me to switch my major to go to business; I said no,” Han said.
After seeing many younger students go to the U.S., and studying under professors in Singapore who had trained in the states, Han said, “God, China will be like this very soon. If I do not have a Ph.D, I will not be qualified to teach in China.”
When Han arrived to study stateside, the educational environment was a big change. Han was very satisfied with the less strict learning environment of his home country in a university setting.
“I liked that my professors allowed me to speak freely,” Han said.
After finishing college, Han decided to remain in the U.S. and was soon offered a job.
“I never thought I could stay in the U.S.,” Han said. “I’ll be able to make ten times more, 20 times more,than in China. So I stayed.”
Even though China was transforming from a more socialist society to a capitalist society during his first college years of 1978-1981, Han still experienced culture shock in the U.S.
“I was shocked by the gap between the rich and the poor,” Han said. “And I think America failed in that aspect. … It was very, very hard for me to stomach.”
These opinions were ones he wasn’t afraid to tell others in his classes. Though he recalls many students, even at Warren Wilson, throughout the years were resistant to this perspective of China that contradicted American attitudes.
“I’m talking to a student body that didn’t want to be confronted with a different view of China,” Han said.
After teaching for 32 years in the U.S., Han continues to offer students a new perspective and a chance to learn more about Asia.
Students and faculty from all over the world bring challenging perspectives to the campus. With more international students coming each year, students' eyes are opened to different ideas. Concurrently the international students and faculty are experiencing life in the U.S. through a Warren Wilson lens.
