Last fall, the annual International Fair at Missouri Western drew more than 400 participants and a Kuwaiti student’s presentation was standing-room-only. The University is embracing its internationalization, and Amy Kotwani, International Student Services director, couldn’t be more pleased.
Dr. Krikor Partamian plays in the championship match of the inaugural ping pong tournament named in his honor. Approximately $4,000 was raised for International Student Services. Brian Hopkins ’87, was the winner of the double elimination tournament.
The initiative to enroll more international students is paying off, she says. Since she took on the director’s role in August 2012, international student recruitment efforts have increased, including a larger web presence and more recruiting trips abroad. Additionally, an international strategic enrollment management committee has been formed, which will handle exchange agreements with foreign universities and the University’s processes for international students.
“When people talk about increasing international student numbers, a key piece is also making sure that when the students are here they have a good experience,” Kotwani said. “We want them to go back home and look back and feel good about Missouri Western.”
She said the international students have a lot of choices regarding which university to attend, so it’s important that we not only have all the information easily accessible when they are making their decision, but that Missouri Western has a support system in place once they arrive.
“A lot of them have never been to the United States, and a lot may have never left their country. We want to make sure we provide as much information as possible so they can make the most of their time here.”
This spring semester, there are 87 international students from more than 25 countries. Additionally, eight students from Brazil are studying in the Intensive English Program for six months as part of a Brazilian initiative. There are also two Fulbright scholars teaching German and Spanish.
A 2012 exchange agreement with Xidian University in China brought a professor from there for the 2012-13 academic year and again this year to teach Chinese. Dr. Kay Siebler, professor of English, is currently teaching English at Xidian for 2013-14. Additionally, there are two exchange students at Missouri Western from Xidian, and a scholar from there is conducting research here for six months.
“International students bring different perspectives,” Kotwani said. “It’s interesting to hear how they grew up and how that affects their experience in college. You can read a textbook about a foreign country, but it’s not the same as talking to someone from there.”
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Javier Paz 
Javier Alejandro Paz Blanco was at the right place at the right time, and he seized the opportunity to study abroad at Missouri Western.
The junior from La Esperanza, Honduras, said a requirement for high schools in his country is serving the community, so his class was regularly volunteering at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center.
One day, Dr. Jimmy Albright from St. Joseph, Mo. visited the rehabilitation center on a mission trip and visited with the students from Paz’s high school who were volunteering there. He also spoke at their high school about his archeology work.
When Dr. Albright returned to St. Joseph, he decided to set up a scholarship to Missouri Western for two students from that high school, using his own funds and help from several community businesses. Paz and Edgardo Jamil Valasquez Mejia are now part of the growing international student population at Missouri Western.
“Here are two guys from a third-world country with a real need,” Dr. Albright said. “They are very focused on their studies. They will go far in life.”
“I’ve loved every second here,” says Paz, who was a resident assistant last year. “I love living in the residence hall and meeting everyone in the building.”
The manufacturing engineering technology major said he had wanted to study abroad for college since he was in seventh grade. “My mom told me I would have to work hard and get good grades so I could get scholarships,” he said. “I kept dreaming, I worked hard, and I met the right people.”
His high school’s vice principal had attended college in the United States, so he was a great help to Paz as he prepared to study abroad.
Paz said he had traveled around Central America with a dance team when he was in high school, but had never been to the United States. He owes his impeccable command of the language to starting to learn English in kindergarten.
“The language was my biggest fear before I came,” he says. “But I realized I had nothing to fear. My friends say my English is better than some Americans.”
He said he plans to pursue a master’s in genetic engineering after graduation and eventually return to Honduras. “I hope I get the opportunity where I have enough money to help my country.”
And most importantly, he is grateful to Dr. Albright for giving him this opportunity.
“He’s the best thing that happened to us,” Paz says.
As for Dr. Albright, he has continued to raise funds for the two students’ expenses and to be involved in their lives. “We had a real conviction to help these guys,” Dr. Albright said. “We knew we could change their lives forever.”
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Gilbert Imbiri 
Gilbert Imbiri came to the United States, left, came back, left, and returned yet again. And this time, he says, he is staying for good.
The senior from Jayapura, Indonesia (on the island of Papua) first came to the United States as a sophomore foreign exchange student at DeKalb High School in DeKalb, Mo. in 2004. He spoke very little English and wasn’t quite 5 ft. tall.
When he landed at the Kansas City International Airport, he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to get to DeKalb, so, using plenty of hand motions, he asked a stewardess for help. “I was so small, she told me to wait and she would help me,” he says. “I walked out with the pilot and the stewardess, the last one off the plane. And there was my American family, holding a sign that read, ‘Welcome to the United States, Gilbert!’ I said, ‘That’s me!’” But they were frantic because they had been waiting so long for me to come off the plane.”
After the school year at DeKalb, he went back home to Indonesia with a plan of returning to the U.S. He spent his junior year of high school in his native country, and returned his senior year back in the U.S., attending Maur Hill Academy in Atchison, Kan. He lived with the same family that he had stayed with his sophomore year. “My American mom calls me a bad penny, because I keep returning,” Imbiri says with a laugh.
Then it was back to Indonesia. This time, it took 18 months to get the visa he needed to attend college in the U.S. Imbiri supported himself by singing in a Christian band, traveling all over southeastern Asia.
He came to Missouri Western in the fall of 2010 and has loved his experience here. “The professors put a lot of effort into helping me.”
The convergent media major will graduate in December 2014, and is getting married in May 2014. His fiancée, also a Missouri Western student, is from Nebraska, and Imbiri says they plan to live in the U.S.
“Papua and my family will always be in my heart. But I feel like this is home.”
Sharon Rodriguez Benarroch
When someone asks where she is from, Sharon Rodriguez Benarroch usually has to explain where her European country is located. She is from Andorra, one of the smallest nations in Europe, which has a population of about 85,000.
“Usually people get it wrong and they think I am from Honduras. I guess it pretty much sounds the same in English,” Benarroch says. “But Honduras is in Central America, it is warm and is on the beach, whereas Andorra is in Europe (bordering Spain and France in southwestern Europe), it is way snowy and it is in the mountains. I usually have to explain where it is, even to European students.”
Because the country of Andorra has no universities, Benarroch was attending Université d’Angers in Angers, France and looking for a study abroad opportunity. Missouri Western has an exchange agreement with that university, so Benarroch came here as an exchange student for the 2012-13 school year.
She arrived after the semester had already started, and said she received a lot of help figuring out where things were from Admissions, International Student Services, other international students and her roommate in Vaselakos Hall.
Benarroch decided she wanted to return as an international student to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Missouri Western. She plans to complete that in May 2105 and stay in the U.S. to earn an MBA.
“I like the teaching here,” Benarroch said. “There is more explaining and less memorizing. In France, they want you to memorize it even if you don’t understand it. Here we also get to interact, discuss and participate.”
One thing that surprised her is the casual relationship between supervisors and employees, which is very different from the culture in Europe. Benarroch works in an office on campus.
“I really like it here,” Benarroch says. “I like the way the teachers get to know you and you get to know them.”