This fall, Stony Brook University saw a flurry of suitcases, oversized Target shopping bags and excited students chatting in various accents. These students hailed from Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and more. 

After a two year-long hiatus due to COVID-19, the Study Abroad Program — an initiative by International Academic Programs — is back in action. Students from Stony Brook’s various partner universities across the globe are attending their fall semesters in the United States. 

United by the popular card game Uno at a dinner party in West Apartments, Hongkongers and Singaporeans shared trinkets and stories from their first weeks in America. Many of them missed out on in-person orientation programs held at their home universities due to COVID-19. Their first in-person orientation was hosted by Stony Brook.

“Orientation here is so different, there are so many clubs and avenues for students of the same major to meet,” psychology major Cheung Tsz Kin said. Kin was enrolled in the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

According to Stony Brook’s Study Abroad website, the program is “dedicated to expanding cultural horizons, cultivating intercultural understanding, and promoting academic growth for Stony Brook students and incoming international exchange/visiting students.” Global studies major Rae Oh agrees with this sentiment. 

“An exchange program is a great way to help reduce biases and prejudices that one may have,” Oh said. 

With the reduction of said biases and stigmas, students can even draw parallels between their home countries and their new lives at Stony Brook.

Oh and Kin’s friend Vedette Ong, a mathematical sciences major from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore), said she saw several similarities between Stony Brook’s and NTU Singapore’s academic programs.

“Studying here is similar to that of Singapore because of the academic rigor. Singapore is a fast-paced country in terms of education,” Ong said.

In addition to partner university programs, Study Abroad also features faculty-led programs where students can give back to developing or less-developed countries while conducting research alongside esteemed professors.

One such program involves spending a summer in Tanzania. The President of the Stony Brook Students for Tanzania club, Leya Khan, spoke about her experience with the program, which has been running for 20 years. 

A typical week in their Summer at Tanzania program looks like brainstorming assignments to help better the conditions of schools in Tanzania in terms of basic infrastructure and facilities, aside from participating in cultural excursions and community outreach programs.

“Women in Tanzania don’t have access to pads or tampons like we do in developed countries like America,”  Khan said. “They have to make their own cloth pads.”

Stony Brook Students for Tanzania then held workshops on how to make cloth pads for women to make up for the lack of access to sanitary products in the country.

Khan’s colleague and Event Coordinator for the club, Chloe Saquing, added that the club raises their own funds for the next generation of Stony Brook students headed to Tanzania.

“We hold raffles and bake sales and post them all over social media to raise money for the program, and being able to see the funds go directly into action in Tanzania is really meaningful to us,” Saquing said.

Students hiked up Mount Kilimanjaro and went on a three-day Safari to parks such as Tarangire, Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti. They also visited several hospitals and clinics, acting as volunteers.

“There is so much you take for granted in America and these types of Study Abroad programs really open your eyes,” Saquing said.