International and exchange students at the University of Oklahoma said they find it easy to adjust to life in the United States as OU students offer them assistance and friendship.

“Many people here are very kind and are very willing to help you,” said Jorge Arroyo, Peruvian exchange student. “If I have a concern or question, I can ask anyone and they will help me.”

Arroyo said there are a lot of events hosted by different organizations on campus welcoming international and exchange students.

Shana Edgecombe, international business senior, said she came to OU in 2005 from the Bahamas.

“When I first came here, people reached out to me and spent time with me, helping me out when they really didn’t have to,” Edgecombe said. “I just want to pass it on, and I feel like this is where God wanted me to be.”

Edgecombe said the people really got her to stay here, and she said she wants to be able to give back to these international students here now.

“My favorite thing since being here is getting to meet more people,” said Haby Ly, University College freshman from Senegal. “I find the people here are very kind and helpful.”

Ly said she has been studying at the United World Colleges, a school of roughly 200 people from 100 different countries, in Canada for the last two years and chose to come to OU for the engineering college.

“I wasn’t really sure about my major, but I knew I wanted it to be engineering,” Ly said. “They had a lot of opportunity for that here.”

Ly said she enjoys the international events they provide at OU, but wishes she could be a part of more of them.

“I signed up for OU Cousins and I hope I will have a cousin soon,” Ly said.

Rosa Moguel, a business junior from Mexico, said she loves the international events at OU.

“Part of my major is getting to know other international students,” Moguel said. “It has been really good coming here and getting to know them when I’m kind of at the same place they are, as an international student.”

Moguel said she has made some of her best friends here, friends from Vietnam and Korea, students she never thought she would encounter.

“Getting to know people from different places around the U.S., as well as people from around the world is one of my favorite things here,” Moguel said.