Photo by Abby Bellow
Chroma, a new international student organization, hopes to better connect International students to the American student body through various events and activities.
“Chroma means color in Greek, so it was a short term that kind of included everything,” President of Chroma, junior Michelle Umurungi said. “Hopefully, we can make a lot of colorful relationships and experience things that we didn’t get the chance to before Chroma.”
Previously at Oklahoma Christian, an international student organization existed under the name People To People International. The new name and new leadership allow for new results, according to Umurungi.
Chroma also looks to better include American students into the club, adding a new dimension to the club’s colorful name.
“It’s colorful – it’s not just black and white,” sophomore Abby Davis said. “It’s a mixture of things and I think that has to do with a lot of our different personalities as well. People with different personalities and backgrounds can come together and still be friends.”
Oklahoma Christian welcomes students from all over the world, including international students from more than 50 countries.
“You can connect with people that are like you; you can find people [who] are just like you.” Jacob Shuart, international student advisor, said. “Or, you can connect with people that you never thought you’d ever meet in your whole life and you’ll have something in common with them, and you would have never expected it. A lot of times, building those relationships needs facilitation and needs a place to start. So, something like Chroma exists so that they have the opportunity to seek that out and find where they belong here while they’re at school.”
Only a few American students are currently members of Chroma, according to Davis.
“I definitely think that [there are] a lot of people interested in joining and getting involved with the club and making [international students] feel at home,” Davis said. “That’s what OC’s about is making everybody feel at home and just accepted and loved. I think this club is a great way to see that happen.”
Making Oklahoma Christian home for students requires finding activities to take part in locally.
“A lot of times international students don’t know where to go or what to do, like on Saturdays or the weekends,” Umurungi said. “We kind of want to experience the American culture and you can’t do that if you don’t have local students joining and showing what they do and how they do it. We want to bridge the gap and have activities where we actually involve local students.”
Part of bridging that gap requires breaking the misconceptions of American culture for many international students, according to Shuart.
“They all have these preconceptions of America in general and then American college life on top of that,” Shuart said. “It’s not always easy to fit in. So, having a place that’s internationally minded, not so much as a support group but just as a launching point for students to get connected to the campus if they’re not immediately connected is important.”
Chroma plans on connecting international and domestic students through a variety of events.
“We hope to do a broad range of what it’s like to be in an American Christian college,” Shuart said. “We will do a service project each semester. …In addition to giving back to the community, we kind of want to give our international student population the chance to explore Oklahoma and America. So we’ll plan trips and events at the breaks and throughout the semester just to kind of show them a little taste of what it’s like. We’ll show them what people do for fun on the weekends, places people like to do, what camping is like in America, and stuff like that.”
Prior to Chroma, People To People International facilitated these relationships under Shuart, but the club wasn’t as internationally focused, according to Shuart.
“Probably the most significant change is that all the officers have to be international, with the exception of an American liaison position who can connect with the domestic student body,” Shuart said.
Chroma leadership consists of President Michelle Umurungi from Rwanda, Vice President Mahya Inoue from Japan, Runze Tian from China (secretary), Kezia Gavrilla from Indonesia (treasurer), Toru Hirosawa from Japan (historian), American Liasion Rachel Allen, Israel Ramirez from Peru (public relations coordinator), and SGA Chair Jing An from China.
“This year, we began a multicultural committee on top of all our other committees,” Davis, student government treasurer, said. “That committee is working together with Chroma to put more of an international presence within the school.”
The new multicultural committee is working parallel with Chroma to help with making international students’ voice heard as well as providing funding for campus events, especially during International Education Week on Nov. 17 – 21.
“You don’t have to be an international student to be in the club,” Shuart said. “We want it to be a place where international students feel welcome and comfortable and can learn to build relationships with other international students and the campus community and domestic students.”
The next Chroma meeting is Nov. 12 at 8:30 p.m. in the Harvey Business Center, room 104.
For more information visit the club’s Facebook page.
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