International Coffee Hour

Fresno State has over 900 international students. These students get to come to the United States and experience a whole new world. Often, international students have ideas of what this new culture will be like. The only thing Ramona Stephen, 24, knew about America was from what she had seen in movies such as “Mean Girls.”

Now that she has lived in the U.S. for two and half years, she knows that is not the case.

Stephen is an international student from Sri Lanka, a tropical country located south of India in South Asia. The island is filled with rolling hills and surrounded by beaches. Stephen says it’s beautiful. She left Sri Lanka so that she could get an education from Fresno State where she is an animal science major and will be receiving her degree this December.

“It’s exciting to be an international student because we get to travel and see something totally different, very contrasting to our culture,” Stephen says. “When I came here everything was new.”

Even though school is her top priority, Stephen loves adventure. She was able to be adventurous and go skydiving with her friend, Tamae Clarke.

“From the moment I met Ramona I just loved everything about her,” Clarke says. “She’s got a great personality. Whenever I see her, she’s always happy, positive and she likes to be adventurous. She likes to try new things.”

To make new friends and meet new people, Stephen became part of International Coffee Hour at Fresno State. Every Tuesday from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the library, students can hear a different speaker talk about their country and culture.

Coffee Hour coordinator Skylar Nguyen says she believes it is important for people to learn about other cultures.

“If people from different countries can understand and know what’s important to a certain culture, I feel like we will connect much easier with each other,” Nguyen says.

Coming to Fresno has been an adventure for Stephen and she now knows that America is not like Mean Girls.