Aziz Kangbeya ’23 representing the International Students Association (ISA)
When Aziz Kangbeya ’23 first came to Florida Southern College, he admittedly felt a little isolated.
As an international student and a freshman, Kangbeya had very few people around him that could relate to his situation. Kangbeya is the son of a United Nations worker, and has moved around constantly throughout his life.
Kangbeya’s father Karim is from the Ivory Coast, but his job as the Information Technology Operations Officer for the U.N.’s World Food Programme allowed his family to travel all over the world. Aziz was actually born in Italy but calls the Ivory Coast home.
Aziz estimates that he has lived in 20 different countries and is fluent in both French and English, but all that experience of starting over did not help him much when he arrived at Florida Southern.
That is where student groups like the International Students Association (ISA) have helped newcomers like Aziz, and where Aziz is helping to give back.
“There’s so many international students on this campus,” said Aziz, who was the president of the ISA last semester and who has been instrumental in revitalizing the group. “I’ve seen this campus grow in terms of how many international students there are. I felt like it was pretty important for international students to specifically have a place for them to feel accepted and heard.”
Finding a Place
The International Student Association meets in the Evett L. Simmons Multicultural Center and is guided by its director Thomas Range.
The ISA’s current president is sophomore film major Miah Payne, who is from the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago.
Like Kangbeya, Payne also felt a little uneasy coming to Florida Southern. A part of it was coming to a new place, but the major part of it was coming from another country.
“It was kind of jarring,” Payne said. “I didn’t know anybody. It took me a while to acclimate to the weather, and a little longer to make friends and get to know people.”
Currently Payne said there are six other students from her home country going to Florida Southern, but she knew she had to get out and meet more people.
That is where the ISA came in to play.
“Now I’m more involved on campus,” said Payne, who is also a Resident Advisor. “With the ISA events on campus, I’m able to promote and tell other international students on a more face-to-face level (about the ISA). If you want to meet others, you should come out.”
The current membership of the ISA is estimated to be around 100 students with 52 countries represented amongst them.
In total there are 121 undergraduate, graduate or doctoral international students hailing from 55 countries and six continents attending Florida Southern. Of those 121, 110 are undergraduate students.
Range welcomes one and all to come to the Simmons Center.
“The message of the Simmons Center is to recognize and appreciate all cultures even if they’re small in number,” Range said.
A Helping Hand
Kangbeya has spent a lot of time working with Range and the ISA at the Simmons Center, but he also plays a key part as an intern for Admissions.
It is a role that Kangbeya relishes, because he sees himself in those first-year students looking for someone to talk to and a place to gather.
“Helping freshmen (is the best),” Kangbeya said. “I was already here on campus over the summer because I took some courses and had an on-campus internship. I was able to be there when the international students came in early. I was able to talk to them, talk to their parents and families. I was able to help accommodate them and give them directions. I think that was a pretty important thing, just for them. It also helped me just in terms of speaking and growing just as a person, because it’s a bit more personal than anything else. That’s something that I appreciate. Just seeing the relaxed look on their face when they are coming from (all over) and you’re there to help getting them to relax and say ‘OK, it’s not that bad.’”
