 While I was at SMU, Jeremy Brown took the time to arrange three student interviews for me, and they were absolutely awesome. Today we're going to talk to Monce, Auer, and Taira. These are three international background students. They're all from very different major backgrounds, so whether you're into engineering or arts or humanities, you're going to find something interesting here. My name is Moncero Rodriguez. Everybody calls me Monce or Monce, and I'm from Dallas, Texas, born and raised here, and I'm a double major here at SMU, double majoring in theater with a specialization in acting and psychology. I want to hear a little bit more about the major actually. Tell me a little bit about the theater program here and what you like about it, how it's been for you? I love the theater department here at SMU like so much. I thought I had like such a passion for theater before coming to SMU, and I got here and it's just like blown me away how much like I've learned and how much I've like fallen more in love with the department. The teachers are like phenomenal. I, they're just like so smart and like they're like so helpful. I love them so much and I think one of the biggest things I had a fear of coming into college and like a theater department was that it was going to be competitive. It was going to be catty, you know, like how you see in the movies where like everybody's like backstabbing and you know it's drama, but like I came here and had the complete opposite experience. I came in and was like welcomed and it felt like a family, and I was like, I was like, oh, I was like everybody actually wants everybody else to succeed and it felt so nice and humbling. And so yeah, I like love the theater department here at SMU. I can't, I never talk about it enough. Hi, my name is Daya Quintos. I am a rising senior studying operations research in engineering management with a double minor in computer science and Spanish. Tell people a little bit more about that program when it's like for you. So that program is basically a mix between engineering and business classes of courses that we offer here. So I had to take some like business courses like micro economics, marketing, like business calc, stuff like that, and also management classes for that, like marketing. And then for engineering, I took classes like computer science courses. I'm going to take other organ classes for that specific major. So it's a mix of like those. So I really like that it's like, you will be like the middle man between like a company and the coders here at SMU. So you will like get to talk to both people, see what like a company wants from the coders and what other coders can do for the company specifically. So hi, my name is Aguera Tam. I am a sophomore here at SMU and I'm double majoring in public policy with another major in business management with minors in Arabic and law and legal reasoning. I'm originally was born in Kenya. I was born in a refugee camp in Kakoma, Kenya, but I came to America in 2006. And then since then we've been living in America. Public policy business, how did you choose those two majors? So it's actually a funny story. I came to SMU interested in international relationships and also human rights, just because I want to go to law school, but I ended up taking those classes and I just kind of like fell in love with the business side and really found like so many helpful tips and so many resources in the cox school of business. And then public policy still gave me that chance to be able to act on my political interests also with economics. And then also it's kind of nice because I'm learning business, but I'm also still doing my internal interests of like international relationships and human rights. I'm still taking some of those classes. What about the minor in Arabic? So here at SMU we have a two-year language requirement and I was kind of tired of taking Spanish so I wanted to take a new language. I decided I wanted to do Arabic. I don't know why. I ended up loving the class and loving the professor and just was so intrigued by the language that I was like, I might as well minor and learn more. I asked all three why they decided to go to SMU and I hope that you can learn something from how they made their decision. They had a lot of really good factors and priorities that they took into consideration to decide whether or not to go to SMU. So let's hear their stories. So I actually transferred to SMU from another university here in Texas. I was wanting something that was close to home, but I was also having a good networking system because my other school I felt like it did have that but SMU has a better like because we're in Dallas so we're close to all those major companies here at SMU and then I also wanted something that was going to give me a lot of financial help and SMU has actually like been of a great help with its financial system that they provide to all of our students especially with scholarships. I was also looking at Baylor but like I went and toured Baylor and just didn't seem like the environment and then so the people was like the correct one and when I came to SMU and someone gave me a tour and I just went inside Dallas Hall and just looked at the building. I just fell in love with it and then just seeing everybody like walking on campus and seeing how like welcoming they were made me feel more comfortable being on this campus than at the other one. I am from Peru, I'm really involved with my Peruvian community here and I was invited to dance for a multicultural in the old Houston Student Center and then when I danced there everybody was cheering on me and then when I came off the dance floor I literally told my aunt I'm gonna come study here and then like literally when I was 10 years old and like 10 years later I'm here I'm about to graduate from SMU so I really like that like little anecdote that I have so I like to say manifested coming here too. So I this is a little embarrassing but I actually didn't want to go to SMU. Like my dream was to go out of state. I was like I need to get as far away from Dallas like as possible. My mom again was a little bit worried when I was you know bringing up all these schools that were nowhere near Texas and she was like why don't you put SMU like on your list and I was like hmm I was talking to my theater director Miss Lauren Redmond who's like she was so like incredible in my journey and like to the point where I call her red mom instead of Miss Redmond and so I was talking with her about like my college decisions and she's like why don't you put SMU on it. Fine like I'll put it on and it was like one of the two in-state schools I had on my list. I went into my SMU theater audition so like Flause Da and I went in there and Bernard and Ann Schillings were the people doing the interview and I remember like getting off of that zoom call being like I actually maybe like the idea of SMU like it started to kind of make sense in my head SMU is giving me everything I want except like this one thing the fact that like it was in Dallas and I'm so glad that I didn't write off SMU before I got here because like I fell in love with it like me and my roommate we clicked instantly I fell in love with the theater department and I started like just like falling in love with campus and it it's like been since then like so so happy like I tell people like I am I don't imagine myself anywhere else it kind of feels like fate sometimes that I kind of ended up here but yeah that's it's my little story with SMU. I feel like I didn't want to be here but SMU was like oh no you're gonna be here and the universe was like oh no you're gonna be here so that's why I'm like I'm happy that I'm here because it kind of felt like I was like meant to be here. You gotta listen to the universe. Yes. The universe knows better than you do. Exactly and that's why I was like I can't I can't I was like I guess this is where we're going like I didn't want to fight it. When I was picking colleges I really didn't want to come to a school that was so close to home I wanted to go very far away so I was looking at a lot of schools in the north my dream school was Harvard but I realized I hate the cold weather and I'm just not meant for it so that kind of really switched on my point of view just a little bit as I started looking and visiting the university and seeing all the resources that there was available I was able to like really fall in love with not only the campus but the students and also like the resources that SMU had to offer and it really changed my mind from trying to not go to any school in Texas to probably my stay here my whole entire life kind of sadly just because I love it so much here and I keep getting so many great opportunities and so many things pop up Dallas is such a diverse community there's so many different communities so many different ethnic groups and that here at SMU I always tell people that they will find their own community and they'll find people that they click with I'm in ASA which is African Student Organization and I'm also in ABS which is Association of Black Students so I was able to meet so many different people from different backgrounds also meet people from Africa who have so many different stories some international students from Nigeria and different places there's so many different cultures here in Dallas that are embraced you're going to spend four years on campus and so I always want to know what the best spots on campus are so listen up so I think my automatic answer is Chick-fil-A it's in the student center it's in the varsity it's closed right now but during the semester that is where I would go almost every day and if I was having a bad day I would treat myself to Chick-fil-A it's part of our meal plan and that was really nice that's one of the places I really went a lot our Starbucks was another place it's in the library so that's really nice like during my 8 a.m classes I would just come afterwards and just sit there grab some coffee try to recapitulate before I go to my other classes and just like prepare mentally for the day have chop shop which is like a healthy eating food that's right over there we have another Chick-fil-A that's across the street and then we have this nice little thing called Snyder Plaza where it's a bunch of different restaurants and a lot of different things I would recommend going to the Anditos it's like a Mexican restaurant and it's really nice I have to tell you to go to probably my favorite place on campus which is going to be the basement of Meadows so down in the basement of Meadows is kind of where like home bases for the theater majors the dance majors a lot of like our orchestra majors and I spend all day down there you know being a theater student and specifically the area the green room right now you might go in and like won't maybe not won't see as many people but during the school year it's always bustling and full of life and like I like my home at SMU is in the green room I've just like fallen in love with it all those like studios around there like I've there to me they're everything and I'm like these they feel sacred almost from like and you when you go in there you kind of feel like all the like energy of like this is the art space and there's so much fun and energy and like excitement in there like I've gone in there a couple times like during the summer because I'm just like I miss it so much and I can still feel it like even though it's completely silent like I can still feel the energy it's like waiting for all the students to come back and so that's definitely one of the places you have to go to third floor of Dallas Hall I love the third floor of Dallas Hall you get like the most amazing views of Dallas truly you get to see like everything and so those are like the two places that I would say I really like the student center because of course we have the food there so I always go to Chipotle downstairs but I also love love Dallas Hall it's like sitting one of those couches and just staring up because it has one of like I think one of our best views but I also like to go on the first floor of Fundrand Library because you can see the whole Dallas skyline from there so I like to go there just to study and relax it is one of our most quietest so when I need to like really really like concentrate I go there but I also like the Centennial Library because it's also in the second floor and I just feel like it's really beautiful and it just reminds me of an old like college view and then my other favorite spot is just being in Dallas lawn it's just one of like just a nice place to just rest and hang out with friends I like to have picnics there or meet with people there so I just like to be there. If you're in high school and you're watching this I wanted to get some advice for you because these people that I'm talking to in this video have done what you're doing right now and they have some really good tips for how you can make this experience better and how you can really find that right fit and whether you should consider SMU. In my college admissions process I was so anxious and so stressed I put so much pressure on myself and like for all these different reasons but most of because I was like college is a really important thing and you really always want to do the best with it and so my biggest piece of advice and I think it kind of goes back to what we're saying you can't really fight the universe don't fight the universe you know have goals set them out but like listen to like your heart and know that you're going to end up in the place that you need to end up. Pick a university that is best for you um and pick it based on the community pick it on the base where you're going to be proud to be an alumni. I think as students we always try to pick things that either our parents like or either that will get prestige or that gives us the most money but I want to tell people pick where your heart chooses because you're going to be there for four years and you want to enjoy it try everything. Try things that you don't know that push you out of your comfort zone. Coming to SMU I went zip lining I've played soccer things that I didn't think I was ever going to do and conquered some of my fears of like fears of height it was really nice to be able to do all those things because I pushed myself out of comfort zones and you don't know you might find your best friend doing an event that you didn't think that you would ever do. Learn how to time manage. I did not know how to time manage and I think that really hurt my first year. You are in college so you're the only person that is responsible for yourself. Apply to all the schools you're thinking like I know that like when you look at SMU that prize drop was like I literally I was like I saw that price and I was like yeah no maybe I should not transfer to SMU but don't look at that price just apply because the help that SMU gives you it's like great like it covers a lot of help especially like the scholarships and if you talk to your financial aid counselors they'll be able to help you more with that so I would say don't be afraid to apply to any schools yes I would say definitely tour them because you will see that like that feeling when you get here if you will feel like a home especially for international students because I know you are moving so that actually even me when I was like okay I'm going to live on campus like I want something that I'm going to be like feel at home and comfortable with so I would say tour that and then also don't be afraid to be involved I'm more of an introvert person but joining those clubs and everything got me to be more extroverted and that's how like it's going to be in the real world especially for those nice networking to get those job offers I would say definitely like put yourself out there and don't be afraid even if you're like shy at the beginning. Again I just want to say big thank yous to Jeremy Brown and to you guys for watching this video if you found it helpful then I am happy if you have any ideas for questions that I should ask students or things that you would like to know about when I make these videos leave a comment below because I really want your input. Thank you so much for watching this if you're still here it means the world to me I appreciate you and I will see you next week.