The support staff here in Lima is awesome. USIL hosts the largest number of international students in the city, and hospitality towards the intercambios is ingrained in the school’s culture. In fact, intercambios are permitted to enter and exit the two campuses at the faculty entrances, a privilege denied to the Peruvian students.
The International Office at USIL has been great. During registration, my adviser Cristhiam patiently went through the entire course catalogue with me, and helped me make a schedule that met my major requirements for NU while still having Friday’s off. After the first week of classes, I decided to drop one class in English to take another in Spanish. Again, Cristhiam welcomed me into his office without an appointment, and helped me find a class that accommodated both my academic interests and desire to improve my Spanish. Since then, I have visited Cristhiam multiple times with concerns regarding transferring credits, dropping courses, grades, etc. Each time, Cristhiam has gone above and beyond in helping me. I feel very comfortable and welcomed at USIL knowing that Cristhiam is there to help me out. I’ve spoken with many other intercambios, and they have all had similar experiences with USIL’s International Office.
My favorite professor at USIL is my Macroeconomics and Business professor, Prof. Pastor. Professor Pastor is Italian, and actually lived in Boston for a period while studying at BU. He actively engages the class in discussions, and challenges the students to think critically when applying theories to real-world scenarios. USIL doesn’t have Teaching Assistants, so Prof. Pastor grades our assignments himself, which I prefer since I feel that I get more valuable feedback.
Another professor I like is my Política Internaciónal Peruana (Peruvian Foreign Policy) professor, Prof. Higueras. Professor Higueras is exactly how you would imagine an older politics professor: he wears sweater vests, carries an old leather briefcase, and has the habit of not speaking loudly or enunciating his words. In English, I would find this latter trait trivial, in Spanish, I find it highly inconvenient. When Professor Higueras is talking about information on the PowerPoint slide, I understand about 75% of what he says. When he deviates from the subject presented on the PowerPoint, I only catch about 30% of what he says, which is difficult since his valuable analyses are always impromptu. Also, everyone in the classroom seems to find him very witty. Too bad I almost never understand the jokes he mumbles under his breath. You know you’re an intercambio when everyone in the classroom is laughing except for you and the quiet Chinese girl in the back #intercambiolife. Like other professors at USIL, Prof. Higueras goes out of his way to make the intercambios feel welcome. He always greets me on my way in the door, and seeks my insight on the U.S. when pertinent to the course. Unfortunately, I was at the time of his questioning totally ignorant of the circumstances regarding President Garfield’s assassination, and I couldn’t tell him what “Lackawanna” (a 19th century U.S. naval ship) stood for. Clearly I’m doing a stellar job of representing America. (Side note: if you regret America’s past foreign policy decisions while studying our history in a U.S. classroom, try studying it in a Peruvian one. “Umm…I’m sorry my country is responsible for supporting military dictatorships throughout your continent? Oh, he was democratically elected…? Sorry about that.” During today’s class, Prof. Higueras went off on a tangent about the countries the U.S. has invaded, and a girl in the class cracked the joke, “yeah, Shannon’s here invading us now.” Fortunately, this time I caught the joke.)
