Deirdre Fraser is from Jamaica. She is now in her junior year at Bryant University. “I’m attending Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island and my major is Management and Economics. There is an educational service in Jamaica the owner she goes to different universities all over the states so what I did I went to her and said I want to study business preferably management and she gave me a list of schools that I should consider and basically from narrowing it down whether its calling them or going online I narrowed it down to eleven and Bryant was one of them and I choose Bryant.”
In order to experience other opportunities and to broaden her horizon she decided to leave home and come to the United States. “I decided to come to the United States just to get a better experience because if I’d stayed and studied in Jamaica I would only learn about the Caribbean and Jamaica itself and just how business is there,” she says.
“But branching out myself to come to the U-S I learn about different cultures. I learn about different things all over the world and not only in the U-S and not only in Jamaica,” she says. “So it was more for opportunity than for my advancement.”
Some of the opportunities and things that she enjoys have been… “It’s been quite an experience. The bet thing I love about the university is that the classes are small so I get more the one on one attention, everyone here is friendly and the staff really like makes sure you are their center of attention no matter what it is so, I always get good grades, I excel and involved with a lot,” she says.
“Right now I am an Resident Assistant on campus and also the president of AIDS and National Student Organization. Members of various organizations such as the Multi-cultural Student Union, Italian American Association, Economic Student Association and the list goes on,” she says.
“So everyone is concern with how well I am excelling in class and succeeding as a person so that is the main concern of mine.”
Deirdre says from the weather to the food to the way she spells different words those are things she has become more aware of since being in the U-S. “One of the major thing in is the weather. I obviously not like doing things like that so that is one of the things. I also grew up learning under the British educational system. So even learning how to spell other words like color, at home I spell it colour, here I have to spell it color or there is this pronunciation of certain things I have to be aware of like I say cha-racter, here it is character,” she says. “Things like that I had to be aware of. I won’t be able to get my native food, but I least I know that there are places nearby where I can get it.”
In one of her classes, Deirdre says she is learning about other countries and how they govern themselves, which is something she would not have learned at a university back home. “Right now I am taking International Marketing and I’m learning about so many different countries and how they do relations and just like if I was home I would not learn that,” she says. “I would probably learn how the British do, their marketing or how different islands might do marketing, but that is about it. Here I will learn about Russia, China, and India I would learn about the U-S and different countries in Africa doing so it is just my advancing like learning how different countries do different businesses and give me a better opportunity to be absorb, like even work abroad so I think that is the benefit.”
May 2010 is when Deirdre says she will be eligible to graduate. She would like to stay here and gain some work experience. Her advice to other students living abroad that are interested in coming to the United States is...This is an experience of a lifetime and this is not something that I only tell just Jamaicans, but any student that is interested in coming to the U-S, it is an experience of a lifetime,” she says. “The administrative staff focuses on you. Students like leaders on campus they focus on you. If you need to get somewhere you need to get off campus and you don’t know how you can do that, although they have transportation here you can go to anyone here. Everyone is looking out for your best interests whether it is in the classroom or outside of the classroom there is always someone there looking after you and you never feel that you will be out of the loop.”
