Visiting Students Give Exchange Program High Marks

QC experienced a significant geographic shift this year: 16 out-of-towners enrolled in the school’s first undergraduate exchange program. As the sole CUNY institution currently involved in the National Student Exchange—a network of about 200 schools in the United States and Canada—the college attracted 14 young adults from across the continent.

The remainder traveled across several continents. Under an agreement with Rikkyo University in Tokyo, two Japanese students are spending the fall in Queens; in return, eight QC students went to Rikkyo for four weeks of classes in January. This arrangement makes QC the first—and to date, the only—branch of CUNY with a Japanese exchange program.

Wherever participants come from, for many of them, QC’s urban location was a major selling point. “This was the program closest to New York City,” says Samantha Jane Liddil, a serial exchange student from the University of Nevada–Las Vegas; her previous academic destinations have included England and Thailand. “I loved the public transit system in London, and wanted to be in a place with subways,” she explains. She got her wish: At the moment, she commutes via the F train from a short-term sublet in the East Village, where her mother lived in the late 1960s and 1970s. “My mom said, ‘Samantha, be careful!’ It was a different place then,” says the upperclassman, who enjoys immersing herself in unfamiliar environments—she’s a sociology major.

Predictably, one of her favorite pastimes is walking around, getting to know the city’s ethnic enclaves. “The changes are drastic,” says Samantha. “It’s like going from country to country: Ukraine, Poland, Korea.”

New York’s mix of cultures also appeals to Clay Rockwood, a senior from the University of Utah. “At home, everyone is pretty much the same: white, middle-class, a member of the Latter-Day Saints,” observes Clay, who is majoring in behavioral science and health. “At QC, I meet people from all walks of life and from all over the world; it’s awesome.”

A Mormon who recently spent two years in Brazil as a missionary, he adds to the diversity on campus. “People ask me how many wives I have,” says the unmarried 25-year-old, who lives with his sister and brother-in-law in their Harlem apartment. “Questions like that come with the territory. Being in the minority is great.”

Japanese students Yui Kato and Yurie Notomi faced some of their biggest challenges immediately after they left the airport. “We got lost on the subway in Jamaica—it was not like we imagined,” reports Yurie. “We didn’t know how to use the phone booth.” Nonetheless, they arrived safely in Long Island City, where they’re sharing housing with a Japanese woman they contacted on the Internet.

Transformed into casual straphangers, the two sophomore business majors remain slightly culture-shocked when they compare their classes and classmates to what they know at home. “In Japan, there are more people in a class, and students don’t speak out as much,” says Yui. “Students here seem more independent and hardworking. They talk about politics all the time.”

Of course, this kind of outside perspective is valuable to the entire college community. “These students add to classroom discussions,” notes Education Abroad Director Gary Braglia, who oversees QC’s exchange programs. But he also hopes that each semester’s visitors will inspire their peers in Queens to venture off campus themselves. “Knowing someone from another state—or country—makes it easier,” he concludes.