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Most people would find it extremely difficult to move away from family, friends and home to pursue an education in another country.
Emmanuel Kwame Teye is one of about 500 students at Ball State University who have done exactly that in pursuit of a college degree. Teye, a first-year graduate student, traveled about 5,700 miles to Ball State from Tema, Ghana, to study cellular and molecular biology and to earn a postgraduate certificate in biotechnology.
Teye heard about Ball State from a friend of his father's who worked in the International Advancement department.
"I've known about Ball State back from when I started college, so I've always looked forward to coming to having ... my postgraduate studies here," he said.
Although Teye knew a family friend who worked on campus, he still needed to find a place to live. He ended up staying with Daniel McMullen, a junior telecommunications student from Anderson, Ind.
The two met when Teye moved into the duplex McMullen and another student were living in. They had both heard about the house through a local church that owns it.
"I moved in and I was the new guy there, Teye said. "They had been living together for a year."
Since arriving at Ball State, Teye has been working to help other international students have as smooth of a transition as he did when he first arrived in Muncie.
He is co-president of the International Ambassadors Club that gives international and domestic students the opportunity to meet and discuss issues, such as how to publicize their club and how to help potential international students. The club also plans events, such as an Olympics Opening Ceremony viewing party.
Teye has also been working with the Student Government Association to give international students a voice on campus.
"I wasn't really happy when I came to campus and I realized there was no umbrella for international students ... but this goes a long way to give international students a voice," Teye said.
McMullen and Teye have become good friends over the course of living together off-campus and joke about how they learned about each other's culture.
"Every country has its own ethnic foods, and so it's been interesting to get the taste of the different foods from Ghana," McMullen said. "He always complains about American foods saying their names are too long and too descriptive."
One such food is honey-glazed, spiral-sliced ham, which Teye calls a complex, botanical name.
In the beginning, Teye had trouble adjusting to life in America. One such problem was the time change. Ghana is five hours ahead of Indiana.
"The first two weeks, you were getting up at like, 3 or 4 a.m. I thought you were going to be a morning guy. Nowadays, you get up at 9 [a.m.]," McMullen said to Teye.
Teye's friendly personality helped him make more friends, McMullen said. Teye enjoys discussing American politics with McMullen, and he often compares Ghana's rules and regulations to those of the United States, which gives a fresh perspective on the subject.
"Most of the time, we would get to meet on weekends — around 11 or 10 [p.m.], and we have our discussions at that time. Sometimes you have to say goodnight like three times." Teye said.
To get away from the stress of being away from home and the nine credit hours he is taking this semester, Teye said he turns to one of his passions from home — singing. He has taught himself how to play the guitar by using McMullen's guitar.
"I was in a group that was about to release a record before I came here," Teye said.
As Teye prepares for the end of the school year, he said he is thankful for how things have worked out.
"When you're moving into a new environment, new people, new culture, new ways of doing things, it's difficult," he said. "I think I relatively had a smoother transition because of Daniel and some other friends that I made. ... It's like a family."
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