Skyline College: International Student Spotlight: May Myat Noe Tun

San Bruno CA

04 December, 2021

12:57 PM

Description

Press release from Skyline College: Becky Threewit December 3, 2021 May is originally from Myanmar and came to the U.S. to help her home country, " become a better place… the U.S. is just full of opportunities." She was especially interested in medical research in the U.S. (though she eventually decided to go down a different route). May wanted to attend UC Berkeley or UCLA and knew going to a California community college would increase her chances of getting into both schools. Once she learned that Skyline College is one of the few community colleges in California that provides scholarships to new international students, she decided to apply. ISP staff supported her through the application process and helped her successfully obtain Skyline College's scholarship for new international students, the Global Beca International Student Scholarship. At first, living abroad was a struggle, "suddenly I'm in a whole different country with like literally two or three people I know." At the same time, she was living on her own for the first time and had 8 a.m. classes, Monday through Friday. Fortunately, she had plenty of support. May says that the ISP helped her through the transition, "Chikako [Walker, Interim Program Manager] and Carlos [Romero, the ISP's Counselor] were there all the time for me… They're like two of the nicest people I've ever met in my life." Whenever May was overwhelmed or worried about her ability to pass a class, Carlos tried to find alternatives and helped her "in every way" he could. She says, "Carlos was my mental support." This press release was produced by Skyline College. The views expressed here are the author's own.