Imagine walking into a classroom on your first day of college. You are surrounded by a new campus, new people and a new area. You have a new apartment, new roommates and new professors. Now, on top of that, imagine walking into class barely understanding the culture or the language.

Being a new student at BYU can be an intimidating and frightening experience. But being new to BYU, and new to the country, can be even harder.

BYU’s Department of Communications accepts several international students each semester. Alice Alecu, a recent international graduate from the public relations program, remains grateful to BYU for her experiences and knowledge gained at the university.

“(BYU) was a mind-opening experience that left me well prepared for the future,” Alecu said.

Alecu, originally from Romania, graduated in April 2009. She was an account executive for the Bradley Public Relations Agency, and completed an internship with Porter Novelli in winter 2009.

Alecu looks positively at her time spent at BYU, but also expresses the challenges and difficulties of being an international student in a different country, surrounded by a different culture.

“It has not necessarily been hard because of the language, although even that was a little difficult at first, but more for cultural reasons,” Alecu said. “Not knowing when to laugh, not understanding people’s opinions and their reactions, or why they would take something more serious than I thought it should be taken, has been hard.”

One difficulty that took some time getting used to was the way people interacted with each other in the United States compared to her home country, Romania.

“Where I came from, people tended to be closer with each other,” Alecu said, “getting in each other’s lives more. The other big difference is that in my school back home, people weren’t competitive; they were more community-oriented, while at BYU it seemed to me that the students tend to be more individualistic and competitive.”

Even with the culture change, Alecu said she felt the communications department at BYU was able to greatly prepare her for the future. She felt a strong bond to teachers and felt the classes were engaging and valuable to her learning.

“I like how dynamic it is,” Alecu said. “The teachers are more approachable and the majority treat their students as their equals. I also like the hands-on experience teachers try to give the students.”