International students travel thousands of miles to attend Arizona State University, and each journey is unique.
There are about 9,800 international undergraduate and graduate students at ASU this year, with more than a third from China and about 23 percent from India.
The Coalition of International Students helps to ease the transition by connecting the young people with each other and by holding events to make them feel that ASU is home. During the spring semester, the organization will hold a Lunar New Year celebration, a career conference, a cricket tournament and a world festival.
The coalition recently held a photo contest for students to submit images that best represented the theme "From home to ASU."
Here are the winning images, selected by the coalition staff from dozens of entries.
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Kristin Rudolph: I am from Regensburg, Germany, and my major is American studies. Here at ASU we identify ourselves as ASU Sun Devils, whereas in Germany, the city and region is much more important than the university we go to. In Germany we wear the dirndl, the traditional Bavarian dresses. In Tempe we are proud to wear maroon and gold ASU clothes and show that we are Sun Devils.
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Marco Fachin: I studied at Carlo Cattaneo University in Castellanza (Italy), and my major here at ASU is business management.
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Naoko Nakamoto: I'm an exchange student from Japan studying education. My picture showed how ASU has changed my life. Looking back on my 22 years, study abroad at ASU is the most precious, life-changing experience forever in my entire life. I'm just thankful for everything, and so proud of myself for being a Sun Devil.
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Ragav Venkatesan: I am from India. I am a PhD student in computer science. I play a lot of different instruments. I also arrange, compose, record and play live. This photo contains images of stages that I have performed at in India and the U.S. It's remarkable that I could play music while in such an absorbing academic course while being on the other side of the planet.
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Siti Norhafiza: I am from Malaysia and majoring in geological sciences. My phone was showing me wearing Malaysia's traditional outfit, and in the background you can see that I am wearing an ASU sweater. I was trying to portray that being thousands of miles apart does not change who I really am. I grow as a person, and I will always carry my pride as a Malaysian and a fellow Sun Devil.
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