Week 2 – Writing Assignment

All of my education thus far has been through the United States Education System. Between Minnesota, Texas, and New York, I have not seen any drastic differences that compare with international systems. One of my good friends, however, marks some interesting adjustments between his experiences in Turkey and America.

Paul attended Eastern Mediterranean University in Northern Cyprus for his undergraduate career and New York University for his graduate. His three biggest differences were the community, financial support and opportunity. His engagement was dependent on the individual help he could receive from his professors on specific problems and subjects. The environment was mostly welcoming, despite the language barrier. Some administrators were not used to dealing with people unlike them or accepting different cultures. The community was fairly westernized though there were certain ways of addressing professors that were different than that of the Unites States or his home in Nigeria.

It’s hard to get scholarships everywhere. Most are offered to undergraduates over graduates. Fortunately, Paul was granted a fairly generous, but the strains of Northern Cyprus’s small economy were apparent. It was a small island in Turkey and an embargo at that. In Turkey, there didn’t appear to be many opportunities outside of the classroom. Paul didn’t feel that the small jobs available wouldn’t help to elevate his career. Looking back, he believes even those positions could have offered important lessons. When moving to New York, however, he had already known of America as the “Land of Opportunity.” He came with a sense of urgency with what he wanted and the best way to kickstart his own “American Dream.” With New York’s bigger population and economy, Paul opened himself up to every opportunity that came his way. Today, he believes the drawback is the burden of opening yourself up to too many things that don’t move you forward.