Senior Amar Baatartsogt can say with confidence he is one of a kind.
The only international student from Mongolia, Baatarsogt is in an elite club: only 20 of Duke’s sizable international undergraduate population are the sole representatives of their countries, coming from places as diverse as Azerbaijan, Burundi, Cyprus, Iraq, Mongolia and San Marino.
And for the most part, when they get here, they are almost completely alone.
Li-Chen Chin, director of the International House, said students who are the sole representatives of their countries are trailblazers. They are also becoming increasingly more common as Duke expands its international reach.
“It took a lot more courage for them to come here in the first place, and in a way they might adjust to the Duke culture more so than students with a large base of support here,” Chin said.
Baartartsogt said his first month at Duke was a difficult adjusting period, and although it is sometimes challenging to be the only person from Mongolia at Duke, he has managed to befriend both other international students and Americans, which has made him more of a global citizen.
Josephine Mwenda, a second-year graduate student in public policy, is one of just three students from Zambia at Duke.
“It’s a bit lonely sometimes,” Mwenda said. “I find myself thinking really why we are not doing well as a country. I look at India and China and I see a lot of people that are coming here. It gives me a sense that people are moving in a certain direction, and in my country I don’t think we are moving in that direction.”
But not all international students from under-represented countries feel the same. Sergiu Ungureanu, a Romanian third-year graduate student in economics, feels that students from countries that have a lot of representation at Duke tend to miss out because they are not forced to immerse themselves in the culture here.
“It restricts and limits all the possibilities,” Ungureanu said. “Chinese and Indian people tend to hang out with their nationality most of the time.”
He noted that he tends to be friends with Americans rather than other international students. Still, he starts to miss people after a while who speak his language and know his culture, Ungureanu said.
These are problems not necessarily shared by the international students from the People’s Republic of China, South Korea or India, which represent the three largest groups of international students on campus with 550, 335 and 451 students, respectively, according to numbers compiled by the International House this academic year.
Pallavi Daggumati, a first-year graduate student of electrical and computer engineering, has found comfort in the large Indian community here during her first semester.
“It feels good to talk to your people, you have a huge number of Indian students at Duke,” Daggumati said. “When I feel nostalgic and think of home, I have people. It’s nice.”
Despite the comfort that her fellow Indian students offer, Daggumati said she still prefers to mix and diversify her friends.
And after just three months at Duke, she feels as though the University is a second home.
Alvaro Mendez, a recent graduate from the Fuqua School of Business who was one of the handful of students from Guatemala, admitted that it was easier to integrate with Spanish-speaking peers.
“I kind of merged with the Latin people here, whether they be from Spain, Argentina, Chile or El Salvador,” he said. “Whenever you hear someone speak Spanish you’re like, ‘Hey!’ but the accent’s never exactly the same as yours.”
Many students from under-represented countries are hardened internationals, however, and do not let the number of students that speak their language or know about their culture affect their foreign experience.
Mwenda said she is thankful that she is not part of a large group of students from her country because it forces her to engage with a more diverse group of people.
“Because Indian and Chinese students group together, they sort of lose out on that extra learning opportunity,” she said.
The mix of many different nationalities is one of the things Mendez likes best about his Duke experience.
“As diverse as it can be, it’s better for everybody—I wouldn’t change a thing,” he said.
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