International student center helps foreign students feel at home

The academic lawn was abuzz Friday night, Sept. 4, as international students gathered to mingle, celebrate their home cultures and worship together at the Worldwide Welcome event, organized by the International Student Center (ISC).

This event is one of many the ISC puts together every year to cultivate international student engagement on campus. Events include open houses, international education week and the popular culinary event “Taste of Nations.”

As the sun set on Sept. 4, students representing a variety of cultures worshipped on the flag-lined Montview steps above the main area of the event. Below,  attendees milled about, conversing, eating and visiting the many booths set up across the lawn. 

Kike Caycedo, a first-year graduate student studying finance, is the operations assistant for the ISC. He is actively working to cultivate community through fun and engaging events. Campus organizations including the Office of Equity and Inclusion, CASAS, the Association of Students of African Descent and the LU Shepard’s office, along with many others, set up stations for students to visit.

“The Worldwide Welcome basically is the event where we welcome all of our new [international] students and our current students back to Liberty in the fall,” Caycedo said. “It’s an event for our students to get to know the community. … It’s a great opportunity for domestic students and international students to get to know each other and celebrate diversity.”

Current Liberty student Freya George was born in India and raised in the Middle East after her family moved to Abu Dhabi when she was 6 years old. George committed to Liberty without visiting the campus, but had  heard about the school from fellow church members and watched videos about Liberty on YouTube. 

“You won’t get this experience anywhere else,” George said about the school. 

George is completing her CSER requirements through the ISC and said that although she is very mixed in with both domestic and international students, the organization is a great hub for international students to meet and mingle.

Caycedo is from Colombia and expressed the impact that the ISC had on his experience as an international student at Liberty during his undergraduate.

“We try to make our office a home away from home to help [international students] feel like they have a place where they belong here at Liberty,” Caycedo said. “As an international student myself, when I was a student, I sometimes felt like I didn’t belong, and the ISC was definitely the home away from home that I had.” 

To contact the International Student Center, email ISC@liberty.edu, or visit their Instagram or Facebook pages.

Kayleigh Hammer is a Copy Editor. View her profile on LinkedIn here.