By Iuliia Fakhrutdinova
I remember the day when I received the letter from St. Michael’s College. It was a sunny and warm April morning. I was on the tram on my way to work at 8 a.m. and checked my e-mail. It was a letter from my sponsor, IIE, The Fulbright Program in Russia saying that I had been accepted at St. Michael’s College for the MATESOL program. As any person, I started searching for information with key words “Vermont” and “Saint Michael’s College.” The internet gave me thousands of pictures with beautiful forests, mountains, lakes, and colleges. I asked some of my friends from the USA and Russia who had been in Vermont before what they could tell me about this state and university. All of them described the place with the phrases “green,” “precious,” “wonderful,” “beautiful,” “lucky you,” “it is like a family,” and “great people.”
On August 19, after a long trip from my home city Samara, Russia, with 2 stop-overs in Moscow and London and a month in Philadelphia, I arrived in Vermont. I was impressed by the buildings, the classrooms, the flowers, the library with a magic PE section of Applied Linguistics, and even the printing system. I have never thought that a printer can impress me but it happened here.
On August 28, classes started and most of the students were upset by the upcoming reality of endless homework assignments, and I was waiting for this day like a little child waits for Christmas. Christmas came with interesting, captivating, and wonderful classes. Sometimes you cannot realize that the lesson is over, as time flies, and a two hour and half class seems to you to be a ten minute conversation. In the USA, the system of education is completely different, especially relationships between professors and students. Professors are like friends who can support and help you, they respect your point of view and treat you as colleagues rather than students. That is motivating and inspiring.
If somebody asks me to tell them more about Vermont and St. Michael’s College, I would repeat the same words that other people said to me. Vermont is a beautiful state with green mountains, incredible lakes, unforgettable views, kind people, and, finally, a wonderful college where you are in a family. Lucky are those people who will have an opportunity to study here.