Rolling out of bed around 7 a.m., after but one push of the “snooze” button on her alarm, Guadalupe Rosales, 20, gets dressed, uses the bathroom and prepares for school. She grabs a light breakfast, usually a bowl of cereal or oatmeal, then brushes her teeth, puts on a jacket and heads to class, giving herself at least 30 minutes to walk from her Towson Run apartment to campus.
Exchange student, Guadalupe "Pita" Rosales. / Photo by Elizabeth Lubuag. Towson University
This is a usual morning for Guadalupe Rosales.
Although her schedule is one to which many students can relate, Pita is not your average college student or your average Towson Tiger.
She is actually an exchange student from California State University at Northridge (CSUN) who is studying at Towson for the semester via the National Student Exchange program (NSE). This program gives participating students the opportunity to study in over 200 different campuses throughout the 48 contiguous states, Guam, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, and even Puerto Rico.
Kerica Henlon, academic advisor and assistant coordinator of the NSE program, encourages interested students to take advantage of the NSE program and its many benefits.
“Students who participate in the NSE program see and learn new places, learn a new way of life, make new friends, take new courses, and learn new perspectives. An exchange opportunity may make students more marketable when applying for graduate programs and/or jobs.”
Pita chose Towson University (TU) for her exchange for similar reasons. She wanted to get out of California and away from home, but even more so, she says that it was difficult to find schools that offered a deaf studies program, let alone a good one. Fortunately, TU seemed to be a perfect fit– so much so that fellow CSUN student, Casey Callan, 20, history major, selected TU as his exchange site as well.
“I think she [Pita] will get an invaluable amount of cultural knowledge including aspects both macro and micro in scale. For example she will experience differences regarding the east coast, the state, the city, and finally the Towson community,” he says. “I hope to gain all of the same as Pita, but with a particular emphasis on historical study, of course!”
Once she finds the time, Pita plans to do some major sightseeing, but until then, school remains her first priority.
In class, she works towards her bachelor’s degree in deaf studies with a concentration in pre-deaf education, which focuses towards people who want to become teachers for deaf students. This may seem out of the ordinary to some, but to Pita, deaf education has been her calling since she can remember.
Exchange student, Guadalupe "Pita" Rosales types away on her laptop. Photo by Elizabeth Lubuag, Towson University.
“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher and I felt the deaf community was the right place for me because I have deaf cousins, so I was exposed to sign language at a young age and it stuck with me ever since.”
Between classes, Pita usually grabs something to eat, relaxes a bit, and tries to complete some homework before heading to class again. After her last class, she either tries to do more homework before she sleeps or goes to rugby practice depending on the day.
Although Pita’s home is across the nation, much of her lifestyle remains the same. She stays focused on school and active in sports and recreation. Not much is different for her.
As the youngest of four children, Pita is used to a full-house, so adjusting to community living with seven roommates is not much of a stretch from what she’s accustomed to. In fact, she feels very fortunate, stating that living with so many roommates has its benefits.
“You get to meet more people as they each venture out with sororities or clubs and have people over. You have more support and you don’t feel so alone like you would if you had only one roommate. And, you get so many different perspectives because we’re from so many different places.”
Her only complaint is that with so many roommates, the small kitchen gets crowded very fast.
But, overall, her experience at TU has been a positive one that has made her more appreciative of her friends and family back home.
