With the help of her family and a scholarship, Enkhtuya Battulga was able to come to the United States to study. “I’m from Mongolia and I decided to come to study in the United States and the reason is I’ve always wanted to study in the U-S, but I never had a chance. A year ago my dad found about an organization that helps international students to study in the United States and then they had an agency in Mongolia so we contacted the people and they help me to come to the U-S,” she says.
“I have a scholarship from the International Doorway to Education and Athletics and my scholarship covers half of my tuition for each year. So half of my tuition my parents pay and half is on a scholarship.”
Finding the right university to attend came after spending some time viewing colleges and universities on the internet.“I am attending Valley City State University in North Dakota and when I applied for a visa to the United States, the agency sent my papers to different universities and then they sent me ten cities that I was accepted to," she says. And I had to choose and it was a hard choice and then I went to the website, the Valley State website. On the website it says’ Best College Ten Years in a Row,’ so I said ‘ok’ they are the best one so I will go there.”
This is Enkhtuya's second year at Valley
City State University and she says the size of the campus and the one to one
ratio with the professors is a new experience for her. “When I came to Valley City I had no idea
what college I’m coming to, all I knew was it is very close to Canada, it’s
cold and I came there at night so I didn’t get to see the college the first day
I came, but when I wake up in the morning I saw this beautiful campus,” she
says.
“It’s a small campus and Valley has one thousand students.Then I saw people and they were really nice
and welcoming and warm people and it is a very comfortable place,” she
says.“The teachers are very nice, the
classes are small and if you don’t understand something you just go to the
teacher and they will tell you and they will sit down with you and explain
things to you.That was an experience
that I never had before when I was in Mongolia.
I use to go to a bigger college and basically there is no relationship between
the teacher and the student. It is like
a close barrier you have,” she says.“So
that is a great thing about Valley. It
is a small college and it’s a one-to-one relationship with your teachers.”
Enkhtuya says her major will allow give
her more options as far as what she can do when she goes back to Mongolia. “I’m majoring in Business
Administration. In Mongolia we just been
through redeveloping the country
and everybody is trying to have their own business and how to run it and we
have a lot of foreign investments and it is a smart choice that if I have
English and if I have a degree in Business Administration then there are more
choices that I can have a better job.”
Enkhtuya's says people have been very helpful and nice, which is different from how people are in her country. “In Mongolia people are very welcome and they are very nice and sometime in Mongolia people need the time to know you. In America it is different. When you need them they are so like hey how is it going and how can I help you. I always thought that Americans they are compared to Asians they are big, and they like big houses, big cars and big plans and when I came here, ‘Yes, I was right!,’” she says. “There are big people, big houses and big cars and they have big ambitions and are very open-minded people, very nice and they are always ready to help you.”
Going back home once Enkhtuya completed her degree was the plan, but that has now changed....”I will be graduating in 2011 in December and the first plan was I would graduate here then go back home and have a little business with my dad. Now, we are thinking since I am here maybe I might go to a graduate school then I go back home.
