By Amanda McCoy
“The World is Hiring” was this year’s theme for International Education Week, put on from Nov. 12- 17 and designed to promote students gaining international education and experience.
Jean-Marc Hachey, author of “The Big Guide to Living and Working Overseas,” was the keynote speaker for the weeklong event. He hosted three hour-long workshops throughout the week in which he spoke about international careers and how to achieve success.
Hachey said schools want students to “think international” by acquiring an internship or studying abroad. He advised students who study abroad to learn how their host countries make decisions, make friendships with locals and join a club committee.
When students become “international,” they should know how their countries are run in a professional way, such as how the country is organized and how its meetings are ran, Hachey said in one of the workshops. This is important for students looking to have international jobs because they will be able to negotiate with other countries and understand them in a different way, he said.
American students are becoming more international, according to the 2013 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange. The report found that the number of U.S. students studying abroad was at an all-time high of 283,332 during the 2011-12 school year.
That number quadrupled what it was two decades ago.
Study abroad students are also choosing nontraditional locations, such as Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, the report found.
Peter Yunouye, Fresno State’s foreign student adviser, said 150 to 250 new international students come to Fresno State to study each semester, with the majority coming from India.
“The benefits of students coming to Fresno State are the lower cost of living,” Yunouye said.
“Fresno is centrally located in California, great teachers and a great education, the four weather seasons still exist in California. Fresno State is ranked eighth in the nation by U.S. News and World Report under ‘best public West Coast regional university,’ and there are great programs offered,” Yunouye said.
International students find Fresno State by either word of mouth from other people, international recruiters who seek students for Fresno State or through educational fairs and catalogs, Yunouye said.
Fresno State international student Oscar Reyes attributes all that he knows to traveling. The 22-year-old junior is originally from Guatemala and is majoring in international business.
“Traveling opens up your mind and gives you a better idea of what the world really is,” Reyes said. “You find out the world is not just the couple of streets that you grew up in, but that there is a whole window of opportunities to seize.
“My family owns an international company so ever since I was a kid my family and I would spend our free time traveling, learning how to take care of the company and trying to enrich my cultural span,” Reyes said.
Reyes lived in several countries such as Costa Rica, Spain and Chile before coming to California.
“I came to Fresno State because I wanted the opportunity to experience California. Fresno State gave me that opportunity, so I took it,” Reyes said.
“From the United States, I have learned a lot of things. Maybe the most important thing is to understand and be able to appreciate free market at its greatest,” he said. “I will bring back all of the information I have learned in my classes, of course, but most importantly all of the experiences that helped me grow up here.”
