And the iPhone wins: A tale of an exchange student
Clad in her usual shirt and printed floral skirt, Alycia Bobak walks inside the room commanding attention because of her huge, infectious smile. Brightness fills the room as she humbly enters the crowd of fellow winners in a photo contest she just topped.
Exchange student Alycia Bobak, 21, recently won the Ateneo website photo contest for the Spaces category. The student from Buffalo, New York bagged the award for her silhouette photo of a student passing by the Church of Gesu. Her first and only recognition in photography, Bobak gladly shared that she took the winning photo from her iPhone. Yes, her iPhone.
So much was the amazement of the American lass when she heard the news. What a wonderful way to cap off her five-month long study in the Ateneo, she says to herself.
Nearly four months ago, Alycia packed her bags and readily took on the challenge of studying abroad. With an open heart, mind and spirit, the New Yorker bade the Statue of Liberty goodbye and said hello to the Philippines to study at the Ateneo de Manila University under a foreign- exchange student program.
“My mom was a lot easier on the idea but my dad wasn’t because I’m the youngest. It’s only me and my sister. I had to slowly talk to him about these things. I kind of nicely told him I was coming and I always listen to his side of the view but it just felt right to come here and I knew I had to. He eventually said yes and he was very supportive,” Alycia says.
Though it was a not a breeze informing her parents, she took the example of her older sister who also studied abroad and is now a teacher in Rhode Island. “She [sister] went to the Middle East to study abroad, so I was able to come here because of her. She fell in love with education through going to the Middle East and Kenya doing tutoring.”
An education major herself, Alycia is a firm believer that every child should have a good education. “They [students] shouldn’t be put down, they should always be motivated to learn. Because I’ve had some ‘off’ teachers, I don’t want kids having bad teachers,” Alycia relates.
When the right opportunity to study abroad knocked, she didn’t let it pass. She was supposed to go last year but her intense study load did not permit her. “I would have never thought that I would be here right now. I can’t believe that I pushed myself to be here. I worked really hard last semester.”
Before she knew it, Alycia soon found herself living alone in a foreign land— away from her family, residing in a dormitory, and not to mention, eating a bunch of instant noodles and cereals as her everyday meal. Minus the jetlag and the pollution, Alycia finds it easier to adjust to the culture of the Philippines because of the culture and kindness of the people.
“One of the things I do love is that even though people might not understand me and I may not understand them, they still try. And they are very polite. We just continue to try and communicate even the language barrier is so hard. So I think the persistence and the patience, the kindness of the people,” she shared about her adjustment.
Coming to the Ateneo
Studying in Canisius College in New York, also a Jesuit-run institution, it has imbibed in her the spirit of “man for others.” “That has become my life. That’s another reason why I want to teach. That’s why I went to India, why I’m here, to better understand the culture and better understand the world. When I go home and see students who are super confused and they don’t know what to do, I can turn to them and say let me help you because I know what’s going on now,” Alycia firmly says.
Two weeks before her classes started, she went on an immersion to different provinces and was enlightened with the gender issues, culture, globalization, and how America plays a part in the Philippine culture.
She has easily adjusted to the campus given Ateneo’s friendly environment. Delightedly, she recalls her oops moment when she totally forgot about photocopying. “On my first day, I forgot that you can (make) photocopies (of) books and so I remember checking on a book in the library and sitting down and reading it like some kind of homework. And one of my classmates came up and found me. He was like ‘can I borrow that and make a photocopy?’ I forgot about the photocopy. And he didn’t charge me for it.”
She describes the Ateneo as a “study school” that requires lots of hard work and determination. “The faculty is very wonderful,” she says. Her theology teacher, Sir Michael Liberatore, also from Buffalo, New York has had contact with her even before they came here. “He helped us adjust here; he’s continuing to help us adjust. He’s like our mentor here and he’s a great professor. And sort of a great friend, he gives a neutral opinion.” She also adds that her developmental studies class and history class are very interesting, but very hard though.
Ateneo’s International Student Exchange Program
Alycia is one of the 52 students this semester that came to the Ateneo under the International Student Exchange Program. This program welcomes international students in various undergraduate and graduate degree programs, student exchange programs and cultural immersion programs. The student must be officially enrolled in one of Ateneo's partner institutions.
Out of the 52 international students this semester, French students dominate most of them with 44.23% while the Japanese follow with 13.46%. Other students are from U.S.A. (7.69%), Taiwan (7.69%), Germany (5.77%), Thailand (3.85%), Norway (3.85%), Korea (3.85%), Brunei (3.85%), The Netherlands (1.92%), Singapore (1.92%), and Spain (1.92%).
However, the number of foreign exchange students has dropped down by 13.33%, from 60 students last first semester (SY 2011-2012) to 52 students this semester. This coming second semester, about 49 new students will enter the university.
On living and studying abroad
“It’s really life changing. I have grown so much as a person; I have changed my outlook in life. I can tell you that the way I interact with people is different than before and now it’s much easier for me to talk to people. I have just learned so much from myself,” confesses the home-buddy Alycia.
Living away from home has got her missing her family a lot. Probably the only down side of it, she makes ways of constantly communicating with them through Facebook, emails and Skype.
One phenomenon she has observed in the Philippine culture is the close family ties. “I think it’s really hard to adjust with how much everything is very, very family-based which is really awesome. In America where I came from, it’s more individual. And I wish it would be more family-based,” she says.
Now that the semester is almost on its final leg, Alycia will soon go back to her hometown in Buffalo— back to her family and back to her old routine. With high hopes of graduating this coming May, the soon-to-be teacher wants to share her love for photography with her future students saying, “When I work with my future students, (I tell them) get a bunch of cameras and do a bunch of projects like different photo essays.
Because I feel like when you give a kid a camera, it just shows their life so much more,” she happily shares.
Asked what her advice is for all the students planning to study outside their countries, “Do it!” she exclaims.
