International student spotlight

Fredrick Amusu is an international student from Nigeria, West Africa. He came to the United States in August in hopes of gaining a better education and experiencing the American way of life.

“It was always a childhood dream for me to come to the United States,” Amusu said. “In high school they would always use ‘the Americans’ as an example, which made me want to go and see it for myself and become great like the Americans.”

Amusu is the oldest of four children. This made his decision to come and study in the U.S a challenge for his parents, but Amusu said they have always been very supportive and accepting of his decision to enter the international student program.

When looking for a university to attend he decided to come to UVU after learning about their open enrollment program and beautiful campus.

“I love it here at UVU. It is so beautiful and has so many systems to help you if you are struggling and make sure that every student succeeds,” Amusu said.

Amusu was excited to come to the U.S and learn more about the American culture. He used the saying, “When in Rome, do as the Romans.” He said that if he was going to come to the America, he was going to learn to do American things. Amusu mentioned skydiving, ice skating and more outdoor activities.

“I love America. You have so many more adventures,” Amusu said.

Although Amusu enjoys the U.S and UVU, he admits that adapting to the culture has been a challenge. One of the challenges Amusu has faced is the difference in accents.

“Sometimes in classes students and professors see us as less intelligent because of our accents,” Amusu said.

A few other cultural differences Amusu mentioned were that in Africa they do not address their parents by their first names, they don’t go on as many vacations and they say ‘good morning’ a lot more often.

Amusu’s plans are to graduate with a degree in business and gain experience here in the U.S working for a few different companies before returning to Africa as an entrepreneur with his own business.

“I want to do this to help the people, because there are so many intelligent people in Africa that just don’t have the means,” Amusu said.