Contact:
Elizabeth Blevins, Director, Office of Communications
Office: (740) 351-3810; FAX: (740) 351-3179; Cell: (740) 464-4854
940 Second Street – Portsmouth, Ohio 45662
E-mail: eblevins@shawnee.edu 
Web site: www.shawnee.edu

U.S. Department of State’s Global Undergraduate Exchange program fellow at Shawnee State University

            A new international student has arrived on the campus at Shawnee State University as part of the U.S. Department of State’s Global Undergraduate Exchange Program in Eurasia and Central Asia.
            Aina Amiralina, of Kazakhstan, the Global UGRAD fellow, is exploring American traditions and performing community service while a student at SSU. Besides her academic studies, she is on the SSU Dance Team and she is teaching children at the 14th Street Community Center how to hip-hop dance.
            “Shawnee State is much bigger than my university and I really like it,” Amiralina said. “Everybody is so nice. Professors are ready to help at any time, try to explain everything that I don't understand. I think now I am getting used to study in English. It’s not so easy. You need to do your best to succeed here, to achieve all your goals.”
            The Global UGRAD program goals are to advance youth leadership and promote mutual understanding by providing one year of non-degree U.S. study to undergraduates from 12 countries of the former Soviet Union.
            The program is highly competitive averaging more than 3,000 applications per year with a 5 percent rate of acceptance. Since 1992, nearly 4,000 participants have completed the program, increasing diversity on more than 140 campuses throughout the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii.
            “I think it will be great experience here at Shawnee,” Amiralina said. “And it is already more than I expected.”



Cutline:
In the photo, Aina Amiralina is teaching children at the 14th Street Community Center how to hip-hop dance. Amiralina is an international student at Shawnee State University from Kazakhstan, a fellow of the U.S. Department of State’s Global Undergraduate Exchange Program in Eurasia and Central Asia.