Hello, readers! My name is Ruth Zapico, and I am an international student from Spain at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC). Please, grab a cup of coffee, tea, or whatever drink that you enjoy. Then, sit down and keep reading. Hopefully you learn something from my experience being an international student, and maybe you will consider becoming one too.

From the beginning I knew I wanted to come to California, one of the most prestigious states. I think that studying in the USA is a really serious and important opportunity for your future. Especially for job opportunities, because of that prestige that I mentioned before.

I would like you to keep in mind three words that we will be talking about throughout the rest of this blog post. These words are: exploration, enterprise, and culture. Later on I will tell you how these three words can apply to you.

As humans, we all have different personalities, ways of thinking and interpreting. These, among many others, are what makes every single of us unique. I came to California to study film and TV production because California is the birthplace of the cinema. However, if you are interested in biology or engineering, that is perfect too, you are just another human being with different interests than me. Maybe your reason to come to California is the nice weather, the surfing, or the beautiful beaches. Once I knew I wanted to come, I started looking up universities, and I read about every single one of them. It was a really long process, I am not going to lie. Many of those universities were not for me. Either because of the cost, the location, or the majors it offered. Then I found Santa Barbara City College. It was a perfect match, so I applied, and a couple of months later I was in California putting together my new IKEA furniture.

Do you still have in your mind those words that I told you earlier? When I came to SBCC, I was looking forward to become more independent, to have more freedom, to explore things, and get out of my comfort zone, following the dreams I have.

Becoming a Santa Barbara City College student brought me so many opportunities. SBCC brought me the opportunity to explore, because it lets you try out different things to see what you like the best. It brings you the opportunity to do internships as well as working on campus after the first semester. SBCC also gave me the opportunity to be an enterprising and creative person because the classes are really practical instead of having to memorize many formulas and letters. And last but not least, at SBCC there is a concentration of people from so many countries around the world. This is beautiful because a lot of out new knowledge comes from talking and living with people from different cultures.

I have learned that in order to succeed you have to work hard to reach your dream. No one is going to do the work for you, and success is something you need to work for. I have also learned what it’s like to live with people with different cultures. It can be challenging sometimes, but most of the time it’s amazing. It is crazy how much knowledge you gain from this experience. For this reason, I welcome future students to enjoy this great opportunity that Santa Barbara City College offers you to explore, create, and be enterprising in the exchange of knowledge.

Ruth Zapico from Spain is studying film and television production at Santa Barbara City College in California.