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Letter from the Director

I can’t believe another year has come and gone. During the 2013-2014 academic year, international students at USC were more active and visible on campus than in any previous years. With events like World Night, Omani National Night, Africa Night and Nowruz, to name just a few, we certainly made the international presence known on campus!

Thank you to all of the international students who took time out from their rigorous academic endeavors to assist in making the USC campus a more global place to study, work and engage. To spotlight a few highlights, International Education Week hosted over 30 events with more than 3,000 participants and hosted Academy Award nominated film di-rector, Mira Nair! World Night 2014 had over 650 people in attendance and implemented the new, but now famous, “Mr. & Mrs. World-USC” contest where Mr. Rahul Singh and Ms. Crystal McRae won the inaugural titles. The first ever USC international alumni club was launched in Oman in April. In an effort to ensure that international students find the USC community a welcoming and culturally-embracing environment, ISS created the Carolina Intercultural Training program where over 80 attendees from students, faculty and staff participated in cultural trainings to support “international friendly zones” on campus! These are just a few of the accomplishments of the year and without the amazing international student body at USC, they would never be possible. Thank you for another great year and I look forward to the upcoming year.

CONTENTS46

ISS Trips

World Night

811

Thinking Globally

Alumni Spotlight

12 ISA @ USC

18 ISO @ USC Salkehatchie

HIKING TRIPOn a wet, rainy Saturday in April, the International Student Services office led nine students on a programming trip to the Congaree National Park, located only ten to fifteen minutes away from the USC campus. It was an ex-citing opportunity to walk through the trails in the Congaree National Park and experience the largest old growth bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the southeast United States. What makes the Congaree park unique is that when the waters of the Congaree and Wateree rivers overflow, it brings water into the park’s floodplain and allows the beautiful plants in Congaree to flourish! The trees and greenery were simply stunning and provided everyone with a great view of how beautiful nature in the South can be.

ISS TRIPS

NASCAR RACEOn Saturday, April 12th, twelve international students from the UK, Vietnam, China, The Netherlands, and Germany witnessed first-hand the NASCAR Race that is called the Bojangles’ Southern 500. The students were surrounded by 60,000 enthusiastic fans in Darlington, South Carolina, as they watched 43 cars battle to drive 500 miles as quickly as possible around the 1.4 mile track. Although the students didn’t know much about NASCAR, they had a truly Amer-ican experience at Darlington. The students left the race covered in dust because of the close proximity to the track, but exhilarated by their NASCAR experience.

World Night is one of the larg-est multicultural events to take place on USC’s campus and fea-tures an array of international cuisine, and live performances by the international and local student community. Cohosted by the International Student Association and International Student Services, World Night 2014 offered a free event includ-ing dinner- sampling food from

World Night 2014

the Middle East, India, and Ger-many- and performances from Japan, Greece, India, Taiwan, Germany, Vietnam, Oman, Latin America, Bangladesh, Africa, a Martial Arts demonstration, and a French puppet show. This year World Night featured the finalists of the Mr. & Ms. World –USC Pageant and the audience could vote for the two winners.

World Night 2014

The whole University experience for me was great, but my final semester at USC was the best. I won the first international title of Mr. World USC, and because of this achievement, I am a very well-known person in USC as well as India. I was covered in several Indian newspapers, including “Times of India.” Now people want to be like me and I am considered to be an example for students who can achieve their goals. No matter what program they are in, nothing can stop them. I met a lot of people in USC and they are my buddies now. To be the first Mr. World USC is the best thing that has happened to me. I got lots of love from USC students and professionals. It’s great to be a Gamecock!

Rahul Tomar-Mr. World USC

Thinking Globally is an organization that encourages in-ternational students at USC to interact with American students in the community. The ultimate aim is to share information about other cultures from all over the world in order to help American students gain worldwide per-spectives. So this year, as a Thinking Globally Ambassa-dor I have delivered presentations about my home coun-try, England, to three University 101 classes and to two groups of students at Irmo Middle School. The best part was being able to teach students about the North of Eng-land, where I’m from, because it opened their eyes up to the fantastic places that England has to offer outside Lon-don.

Evelyn Robinson Exchange Student from the University of Leeds, and Think-ing Globally Ambassador

Thinking Globally

Thinking Globally

The mission of Global Voice is to provide a platform for International Students at the University to voice their opinions, needs, and ideas to promote campus change that embraces internationalization efforts in the universi-ty community. Many of the changes that have occurred in the last year, such as the redesign of our website and the regular shuttle buses to Wal-Mart, and more frequent off-campus trips are all the direct result of student feedback. The meetings take place once a month and most interna-tional student organizations have a board member pres-ent to discuss their upcoming programming efforts.

-Frauke Becker

GlobalVoice AlumniSpotlight

Hagop “Jack” KavafianSince I grew up in an international background, the American Business School of Paris was the perfect match for me, thanks to its many partner institutions throughout the world and the many international students it welcomes.After spending my Freshman and Sophomore years in Paris, I took the opportunity to study abroad during my Junior year: I spent a semester in at Chung Ang University in Korea from Sep-tember to December 2011, before attending the University of South Carolina for the Spring 2012 semester. I then came back to Paris, spent the Fall 2012 semester at the American Business School and joined Alstom in January 2013 for a six-

month internship.On a professional aspect, the school’s corporate relations department helped me get a better grasp of my career path and also gain valuable profes-sional experience. This is also how I learned about the internship position at Alstom, where I was the project manager for the implementation of a new HR Assessment Tool during my internship. Given the success of the project and my performance, the head of our department, David Schajer, VP Talent Management, who was the head of our department, offered me a position as an HR Ana-lyst & Associate in Singapore. My new job is very central, as we lead the Talent Management Gov-ernance and facilitate internal moves by creating Talent Pools. We also measure employee per-formance, promotability, diversity and promote leadership skills amongst Senior Managers and Executives.During the time I spent at the American Business School, I had the opportunity to work in inter-national environments, whether I was in a global firm, given a multicultural scope, or simply in contact with people from various backgrounds. Thanks to this international exposure during my studies and the many foreign students I met, I was able to integrate very easily in other countries and adapt to other cultures, which was a key element in interacting with people at work.

AlumniSpotlight

IranianStudent

Association

Dr Omid Saf i is a Professor of Islamic Studies at the Universit y of Nor th Carolina in Chapel Hill. Dr. Saf i specializes in contemporar y Islamic thought and classical Islam. He is the Chair for Islamic Mysticism Group at the American Academy of Religion. Omid’s Memories of Mu-hammad was published by Har perCollins and deals with the biography and legacy of the Prophet Muhammad. Dr. Saf i is an award-winning teacher and speaker and has been among the most f requently sought out speakers on Islam in popular media, appearing f requently in the New York T imes, Newsweek , Washing ton Post , PBS, NPR , NBC, CNN and international media. If you need more insight into his talk s, please check Discovering the Poetr y of Rumi by Durham Count y Librar y, Love, Human and Divine, in Islam by RumiForum, Midd le E ast , Islam, and American Empire by DukeDISC and Islam and Authors by Islamic Cultural Center of Nor thern California.

T he Iranian Student Association at the Universit y of South Carolina invited Dr. Omid Saf i to USC as a guest speaker. He had t wo talk s: “Jalaludin Rumi: Persian Mystical Poet ”, “Islam in America post- 9/11” and one work shop: “Debates on Islamic Reform” while he was at USC. T his event was co-sponsored by: Depar tment of Religious Studies, Walker Institute and Islamic World Studies. Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi, also known as Molana or Molavi, and more popularly in the English-speaking world simply as Rumi, was a 13th-centur y Persian poet , jurist , theologian and Suf i mystic. Iranians, Turk s, Afghans, Tajik s and other Central Asian Muslims as well as the Muslims of South Asia have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy in the past seven cen-turies. Rumi’s impor tance is considered to transcend national and ethnic borders. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world’s languages and transposed into various formats. In 2007, he was described as the “most popular poet in America”.

Dr. Omid Saf i

I died as a mineral and became a plant ,I died as plant and rose to animal,

I died as animal and I was Man.W hy should I fear? W hen was I less by dying?

Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soarW ith angels bless’d; but even f rom angelhood

I must pass on: all except G od doth perish.W hen I have sacrif iced my angel-soul,

I shall become what no mind e’er conceived.Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence

Proclaims in organ tones,To Him we shall return.

Yalda NightYalda Night , an ancient Persian tradition, is celebrated on the eve of the W inter Solstice to protect humanit y f rom misfor tune. On this celebrated day, people were advised to stay awake until the following dawn. To commemorate the night , f riends and family gather around to eat , dance and read poetr y. Fruits that are red in color, such as watermelon and pomegranate, are par ticularly popular for the evening , as they symbolize the crimson hues of dawn and the glow of life. In the words of the Persian poet , Sa’di: T he true morning will not come, until the Yalda Night is gone.

T he Iranian Student Association at the Universit y of South Carolina in Columbia, SC celebrat-ed Yalda night on December 20, 2013 at Senate Plaza (1520 Senate St , Columbia, SC 29201) f rom 7:30 to 10:30 PM (Since USC shut down all its locations for any event in that time period, we had to use a clubhouse). Dining , dancing and some poetr y were on the schedule for this joy-f ul evening. A variet y of delicious Persian dishes were provided by the Iranian students in a potluck format during dinner time. Dishes are included but not limited to: Dolmeh, Zereshk polo ba morgh, Cutlet , Ash Reshteh, Baghali Polo, Ghormeh Sabzi, .

We had around 50 guests in attendance f rom a variet y of multicultural backgrounds and ethnicities. Persian music was also played all throughout the night and guests danced mer-rily or were provided a lesson on how to dance Persian st yle. As a par t of the tradition for Yalda night , guests randomly picked a poem (also known as Faal) f rom the famous poet Hafez in order to determine what this famous and well known man has in store for them in their near f uture.

International Student Organization at USC SalkehatchieThe International Student Organization at USC Salke-hatchie was organized and es-tablished by Dr. Wei-Kai Lai in 2009. Since then the orga-nization constantly has 10~15 active F-1 students and green card holders. Main goals for this organization include: pro-viding all possible support for our international students, helping them blend into Amer-ican college life, and work-ing with school committees to promote international culture in our campus. During the 2013-2014 academic year, we have 15 students in the orga-nization, coming from Argen-tina, Australia, Brazil, France, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Russia, Senegal, and Trinidad. This year we had two regu-lar meetings and two road trips. Our first gathering was held on September 12 during lunch time. We introduced new members and planned the

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International Student Organization at USC Salkehatchie

events for the whole academic year. Our Regional Campus Dean Dr. Ann Carmichael also joined us in that lunch meet-ing. We had a field trip to the Clinton Sease Farm in the Co-lumbia area on November 16 (picture 2, 3). Students really enjoyed the corn maze adven-ture and the petting zoo expe-rience! To celebrate Chinese New Year, we had a gather-ing on February 6 dinner time during the Chinese New Year period. Dr. Lai, the interna-tional student advisor, cooked some authentic Chinese dishes and shared some Chinese New Year traditions (picture 4,5). The second field trip of this academic year was on April 11. We spent the whole af-ternoon in Charleston. Even though our campus is very close to Charleston, more than half of our members had never been there. They had a great time in that trip (picture 6-9)!

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During Thanksgiving break, Dr. Lai always invites students who aren’t able to travel to spend the day at his house, so they can at least experience some holiday atmosphere on this most authentic American holiday. This past Thanksgiving, there were 4 students joining Dr. Lai’s family for Thanksgiving dinner. They were very thankful, and all had a great time!Students are also encouraged to participate in events hosted by USC Salkehatchie Globalization Committee and local Lowcoun-try International Society. This year there were four students in-vited (by the Globalization Committee) to give a presentation about their home countries, Dieusel Jeannot for Haiti on Decem-ber 3, Dave Stone and Sasha Crawford for Jamaica on April 16, and Anton Khristyuk for Russia on April 8. They all did a great job(picture 10, 11)! On March 20, four students paired with two international professors and shared their experience in an Inter-national Panel Discussion, an event organized by the Globaliza-tion Committee (picture 12). We also had one member who vol-unteered to help with the International Food and Arts Festival on October 5 at Walterboro, sponsored by the Lowcountry Interna-tional Society (picture 1).

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Pumpkin Carving at ISS

Chinese Dragon Dance - Cocky with Chinese Students

Chinese Dragon Dance - Cocky with Chinese Students

International Orientation Fall 2013

Breakfast with Academy Award Nominated Film Director Mira Nair

Academy Award Nominated Film Director Mira Nair with ISS Staff

Persian Food Night by the Iranian Student Association

Parade of Flags at World Night 2014

Traditional Dance by Omani Student Association

PANASA 3rd Annual African Night

Fashion Show at African Night

Fashion Show at African Night

Taiwanese Student Association at Color Run

Indian Student Organization Celebrates Holi

Jashn by Indian Student Organization

Omani Cultural Night 2014

Omani Cultural Night 2014

ISS Selfie

ISS Celebrate the Founding of the 1st International Alumni Association in Muscat, Oman

InternatIonal Student ServIceS901 Sumter StreetByrneS BuIldIng, SuIte 123columBIa, Sc 29208Ph: 803-777-7461Fax: 803-777-0462emaIl: ISS@Sc.eduWeB: ISS.Sc.edu