Oregon State University is the place Diane Pego chose to attend.“I’m from Brazil and back at home we were going with the education system here and so I came here three years ago as an exchange student and that really help me to figure out what I really want to do and where I want to study and I feel in love with the American system and you guys are very organized and everything works smoothly,” she says.
So I am attending Oregon State University in Oregon and I actually chose it by internet because I live back in Brazil and I talked to my dad and my mom and we decided that I was going to come here and there are so many universities in the United States to choose from and I just fell in love with the campus, the teachers at the campus, then I started to talk to people and email people and ask them questions like why should I choose their university.So I emailed like five or six universities and they emailed me and the people from Oregon State were just so friendly and so engaging and welcoming I just had the feeling that this was the right place and I was right!”
Choosing to major in Business, Diane says she will gain the knowledge and skills needed to eventually one day apply them in the business industry.“My major is Business for now, but I want to pursue an international business degree because I have always wanted to work with international affairs, international business I just think the thing that amazes me the most and that I always get excited about so I thought that Business would most likely take me to the path I want to go like an international path so I can travel a lot with a company or something.”
Diane says her time spent at Oregon State University has been good and she says the scholarship she received gives her an opportunity to share about her culture. “It’s been great. It’s just the way I imaged it.I love the campus, I love people here.People here are very friendly and we as international students we sometimes have a hard time making friends and getting involved, but here on campus it is so easy to get involved,” she says.
“There are so many activities and events and I have a scholarship, it’s called International Cultural Service Program and it’s a scholarship that is for international students and what we have to do is to give presentations and just share about our culture with the community and through that we do a lot of international things.We help with any international events when we can and through that I would meet so many people from different countries because here on campus we have I think about one thousand international students [on campus]. [Those] who have this scholarship would be about forty so we get to help with culture events and to give presentations either off campus or on campus and through this scholarship I’ve me so many people and have had so many great experiences just sharing about my culture and interacting with people from all over the world which is what I want to do with my life,” she says.“It is a great scholarship.It is a great experience.”
Receiving a scholarship Diane says has also kept her and her family from having to find ways to pay for her education here in America.“Also, it pays a big chunk of our tuition which is really good too and that is something that international students is always need and that is because the dollar rate always change every once in a while so that is something that most international students are worried about and here in the United States there are so many opportunities to get scholarships and that is one of the greatest scholarships they have here, so I am really glad to have that” she says.
“And my friends here, I live in the dorms also and it is a great way to get involved here on campus if you live in the dorms because you are interacting with peoples either American or other people from other countries too so it are just great.”
Graduation is a few years away for Diane; however she already has ideas as to what she would like to do.“I intend to graduate in 2012 hopefully, but I really don’t know I might stay longer because I have so many plans I want to study abroad first and go up to Germany because I’m learning German now and after I graduate as I said I want to work in international affairs international business so I think that my dream job would be to work for a company where I can travel and go to another countries and sell businesses and things like that and just help people too. I would love to go to parts of Africa, or to Asia where people sometimes struggle and help people through the company or something like that,” she says… that would be the job that I want, so there are a lot of things that I want to do.”
