For Thanksgiving, international students experience local hospitality

December 4, 2015 Andrew Bruso

American students at SUNY New Paltz opened their homes to some of the College’s many students from around the globe this Thanksgiving.

From left: Georgia Burnside of America, Yasaka Umeda of Japan, Pable Artero of Spain, Patricia Backman of America, Javier Planxart of Spain, Ayaka Yamaguchi of Japan and Edoardo Miliffi of Italy.

“I thought that it was important to bring International students closer to the American culture,” said Patricia Backman ’16 (French, Communication Studies), who welcomed eight international students to her family’s holiday table this year. “We went to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, had a huge dinner, went Black Friday shopping, played Monopoly and bounced our brains out at a trampoline warehouse. We all learned about each other and ate lots of food together. It was a huge success.”

Backman studied abroad herself in France in 2014, and she said she understands how much it can mean when families and communities make a point of including traveling students in domestic traditions.

“A lot of students only see the campus life or the tourist life while they’re studying abroad, but I believe it’s important for them to see what American family life is really like.”