Whether they come from Africa, Asia, Europe or Central or South America, Tennessee Tech University’s international students have one thing in common. They’re all looking for an authentic American experience — and Cookeville is just the right kind of city to provide it, say officials in TTU’s International Student Affairs office.

“Cookeville is a good location for international students,” said Amy Miller, study abroad coordinator. “It’s a smaller city, so it provides more of a traditional American experience than a larger, more internationally diverse, city would.”

Often, traditional America — rather than the popular media image — is exactly what TTU’s international students are looking for. The number of international students at TTU has grown rapidly, increasing from about 100 students four years ago to more than 500 now. A total of 65 different nations are represented. The greatest percentages of international students at TTU currently come from India, Saudi Arabia, China and Japan.

For many of them, their study abroad experience is their first visit to the United States, so they are as eager for sightseeing and social interaction as they are for learning.

“Cookeville is centrally located enough so that traveling to and from some of the bigger cities in the region is relatively easy,” Miller said.

That ease of traveling provides opportunities for international students to get a broader view of the geography and people who make up the United States, offering them a more rounded American experience than many locations would.

Many international students themselves say that a truly American experience is what they most want.

Vadim Zheglov, a native of Russia whose family now lives in Germany, first came to TTU as an exchange student in 2005, and his American experience was so positive that he’s now here working on his master’s degree in electrical engineering.

“I was offered a research assistantship and decided to take it because TTU’s College of Engineering has such a good reputation,” he said.

Although he’s become quite accustomed to living in Cookeville now, there were things about the country and the region that took him by surprise when he first arrived.

“When I came here as an exchange student, there were things that I found to be different than I expected. Not bad, just different,” he said. “Germany, for example, is more environmentally oriented. I can tell by the smell of the car exhaust here that they are built differently than they are in Germany.”

All in all, however, the transition wasn’t too difficult for Zheglov.

“The area where my family lives in Germany is Bavaria, which is primarily a rural region, like Cookeville, although the population density is greater there, and Germany is quite an Americanized place. I was used to having American influences around me,” he said.

One of the most significant American influences he encountered as an exchange student here was meeting his girlfriend of two years, Casey Millard, a business major at TTU. (For Millard’s story, see From Germany to Ethiopia to China: Tech's Classrooms)

“As an exchange student, I lived in the Browning residence hall, and my roommate was a good friend of hers. She and I met when she came over to visit him one night,” he said.

For Zeyad al Shammari, a business major from Saudi Arabia, his American experience at TTU has helped him to learn not only about the world around him but about his place within it as well.

“It has always been my dream to come to America. My father has traveled here very much, and he always encouraged me to learn English and to study here,” he said.

Nonetheless, coming alone to a foreign country for an extended period of time was a daunting task for al Shammari, who is one of 14 children — he has five brothers and eight sisters — and whose father is the prince of the family’s tribal region in Saudi Arabia.

“When I first arrived in this country, I was very afraid and very homesick because I was alone and didn’t know anyone here,” he said. “In my country, if I had problems or questions, I could just call on my family, and someone would be there for me.”

Being here has taught him something about himself that he never would have learned by staying at home, al Shammari said.

“I have to learn to do things for myself here, and that has taught me something about myself that I didn’t know before. That has taught me to rely on myself,” he said. “I know when I get my degree, it won’t just be a certificate acknowledging my business training, it will also be a certificate acknowledging my life experiences here.”

It’s also taught him to appreciate the assistance he gets from his friends and other people in his life.

American classmates have offered him help and support in understanding his courses and the language, while Saudi friends often supply him with home-cooked traditional meals.

One thing he does like is learning first hand about traditional American customs.

Through his involvement with the International Community Hospitality Association, al Shammari joined his local host family for their Thanksgiving meal in November.

“It was my first time eating turkey, and I enjoyed being included in my host family’s Thanksgiving celebration. They were very kind to include me,” he said.

The best advice he got about coming to the United States, al Shammari says, came from his father.

“He told me not to believe everything about the United States that I read on Google, or that I see on television or that I hear about in the media. He said that is only a partial picture of the United States, and I found out he was right,” al Shammari said.

“It’s like looking at your hand and realizing that none of your fingers are the same. That’s the way it is with people. None of us are the same, but no matter where you go, there will be good people and bad people, nice people and rude people, educated people and ignorant people, rich people and poor people,” he said.