Being more than 7,000 miles away from where they call home, EC has welcomed five new international students from Egypt to the campus for new education opportunities.
The students are attending EC through a governments funded scholarship called the Fulbright Scholarship program that has been around since 1946.
“We never had Fulbright students attend here. We want to internationalize the student population,” Bill Mulrooney, Dean of Admissions said.
Bill Mulrooney Dean of Admissions said, the scholarship program pays for each of the students’ tuition, housing, books, and other necessities. To attend EC, the students currently have a J-1 visa which is a student visa allowing the students to live in the US for the academic year. The students that were chosen are males, ages 26 to31 and have already graduated both High school and Vocational school and have worked in their field for several years. The students’ majors include manufacture design and Electronics
“I would want to move here to study and get my degree here,” Mena Younan, 24, Electronics major said.
Mulrooney also said, the students heard of this opportunity because there were advertisements and many announcements broadcasted throughout the whole county of Egypt calling for students to apply for the scholarship. The whole process took one year, which contained choosing the students who met the minimum qualifications, interviewing the students chosen, reviewing biographies of the students chosen, and also finding the community college to best fit the students and their majors. There were originally 4,000 non-elite applicants that were students from middle-class families who don’t usually have scholarships available for them to apply. Sixty applicants and biographies were sent to Mulrooney, at EC who eventually chose the five students to attend.
“I found out about the scholarship from a friend who also got a scholarship to Japan, and I found out about it in an ad in the newspaper,” Khaled Abod, 25, Manufacture Design major said.
The students like the opportunity of studying their trade at EC. They are able to get additional training in their trades and are also able to learn more about what their trade is by working with other students in their classes, and getting in-depth training.
“The program is so far so good. Learn what I need. Need to learn more,” Abod said.
Even though the students like the classes because they are learning new information about their trade, adapting to the classes is still something that the students are trying to get used to. They are facing a little difficulty on how the teachers teach the classes and how the community college system works.
“Need to know specific things for specific classes,” Abod said.
Since this is the first time that the students are in America, the Community Education Department on campus are working with the students to get familiar with American school operations. The students will be participating in clubs and monthly activities like visiting county courthouses and attending board meetings and working in groups with other students in their classes.
“The students are attending a language academy to speak and write to get them familiar with American expressions,” Destyn Laporte of the Community Education said. “We also sent the students welcome packets including a Torrance Bus map showing them where they are at.”
“I feel like I’m at home,” Youssef Nassif, 28, Electronics major said.