Danielle Cortes, Staff Writer
As the New Year has begun, we see familiar faces and some new ones. Saint Leo University plays host every year to many students who have heard about our great University on an international level. This year was no different and the campus had an estimated 150 new international students, and a preliminary 400 total including the distance learning centers and all other centers and programs belonging to Saint Leo.
More than 60 countries were represented at the entire University, not just University Campus, with the largest on-campus populations hailing from Saudi Arabia, the UK, Bahamas, Jamaica, and Canada. It has truly been amazing as some of our new students have already started to acclimate to the different cultures and join right in with Saint Leo’s environment. Many of the students were excited to start their studies and majors which included a range from Accounting, all Business majors (Sports Business, Int’l Business, etc.), International Studies, and Political Science, to Biology, Environmental Science, CIS, with Computer Science having the highest number of students, and many more.
It has been interesting to watch the international students find their places here at Saint Leo University every year and hope that they find success in their time here, as well as a home in those surrounding them wishing to help. One important person in particular to the international students is Miss Paige Ramsey-Hamacher, Director for Multicultural and International Services. Ramsey-Hamacher is there for both incoming and outgoing international students. She is there to make sure the students not only get here but also accomplish the goals they have set for themselves. On several occasions, she was asked what her favorite time of the academic year was and she would answer, “The beginning of the year is like Christmas for me, because I have received all these new presents, you students.”
It is no surprise that just as the students have their goals Ramsey-Hamacher has set her own when it comes to these students, “My goal for them is to help them along the way in realizing their plans to graduate from Saint Leo and to be the best that they can be. I hope that they use their experiences here to grow and develop personally as well as professionally so that they can continue to be the amazing strong individuals that they are currently. I hope to walk along with them on their journey here at Saint Leo and look forward to celebrating with them as they walk across the stage at graduation.” We would like to give a warm welcome from both the staff of The Lions Pride Newspaper and Saint Leo to our new international family members.
