IHCC: One of the most popular destinations for Lankan students
OTTUMWA, IOWA --- A few years ago, Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa, made a concerted effort to increase the number of international students enrolled at the college of around 4,600 students. Currently students from foreign countries total over 100, thanks in part to the determined efforts of Freddy Miranda, the Director of the International Affairs Office at Indian Hills.
Miranda points with pride to the fact that the international student population at IHCC includes three very impressive young men from Sri Lanka. Anuja Gamage and Dan Vithanage came to Indian Hills from Colombo, the commercial capital and largest city in Sri Lanka, and Deshan Pathmaperuma, who hails from Makola, a city located about an hour away from Colombo.
These three have brought a taste of a different country to Indian Hills – they are believed to be the first students from their native country at the community college, which is located in Southeast Iowa, about an hour-and-a-half from Des Moines, the state capital. And it didn’t take them long to become immersed in campus life and to start making what they all say will be lifelong friends.
When you talk to Anuja Gamage, you wonder how he finds time to do any studying, given the large number of things he’s involved in outside the classroom. Gamage is the president of the college’s multi- cultural club, president of the engineering club, an active member of the science club, a student ambassador who helps give tours to prospective students that visit campus, a student representative for the annual diversity conference, a tutor for physics students and at the campus SUCCESS Center, and a Resident Assistant in one of Indian Hills’ on- campus dormitories.
Gamage admits, “I keep myself pretty busy, I don’t really have time to rest very much. I try to balance all the things I have going on and have fun at the same time.” With all the extracurricular projects Gamage has been involved in, he admits that the yearand-a-half he has been at Indian Hills has “gone by really fast.”
Armed with the 24 credits he already had before arriving at IHCC, Gamage is on track to graduate next month. He plans to stay in the United States to further his studies, either at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, or at Arizona State University. He will major in engineering.
Pathmaperuma says Indian Hills has been “better than I expected. I didn’t really miss my home that much because everything happened so fast once I got to Indian Hills. I was busy going to class and making a lot of friends.”
Taking four classes, including calculus and English composition, that he considered to be very important in his first term, Pathmaperuma will leave Indian Hills with both an Associate of Arts and Associate of Science degree. Like Gamage, he is intent on staying in the U.S., working for a year and then enrolling at either Iowa State University or the University of Northern Iowa, with a goal of getting his four-year degree in biochemistry or chemical engineering.
Leaving the tropical, warm climate of Sri Lanka, you might think that adjusting to the snow and sub-freezing temperatures of an Iowa winter would have been difficult. But all three of the young men from Sri Lanka say that part of the transition hasn’t been too bad.
“I have even gotten used to the cold temperatures,” Pathmaperuma says. “I traveled quite a bit when I was younger – my father is a travel agent – and we went to some countries that had cold weather.”
The international students also say they feel like they are better able now to deal with the different food choices they are presented with at Indian Hills. All three say they wish the food was spicier, like back home, but they have enjoyed getting to sample food prepared by other international students.
A relative newcomer to Indian Hills compared to Gamage and Pathmaperuma, Dan Vithanage arrived in Iowa last November, after hearing good things about the experience of the two Sri Lankans already at IHCC.
Vithanage talks eagerly about the wide range of friends he has already made and even admits he wishes his classes were a little more challenging.
When asked what he would tell people back in Sri Lanka about Indian Hills, Vithanage says, “I would tell them to definitely consider attending the college because of the great educational opportunity, the teachers who give you great support, and the fact that Freddy (Miranda) and Ashley (Albertson, who also works in the International Affairs Office) make everything happen for you.”
While the national sport in Sri Lanka is volleyball, by far the most popular sport in the country is reported to be cricket. Indian Hills has nine different athletic teams, but men’s volleyball and cricket aren’t among them. The college does have a powerful men’s basketball team and Vithanage says one of the highlights of his early months at Indian Hills has been watching the hoops team play. In fact, he says he has been playing quite a bit of basketball since coming to IHCC and is thinking about trying to join the team as a walk-on, non- scholarship player.
Vithanage eventually wants to be a businessman, working alongside his dad, who supervises projects in Sri Lanka and other countries.
The three young men have been outstanding representatives of their country and Miranda has vowed to keep recruiting in Sri Lanka, attempting to bring others who are interested in getting an education in the United States to Indian Hills.
Gamage is optimistic that will happen. He was the head prefect over 1,500 students at a branch of his high school, Royal Institute International School. He plans to return home to Sri Lanka for the summer after graduating from Indian Hills, and he promises to inform students at his former school of the possibilities available at the school thousands of miles away in Iowa.
When Anuja Ravin Gamage reached Scholarships for USA (Pvt) Ltd with a request to place him in a US university for a bachelors in engineering, SUSA had only one concern. True, Ravin was a super achiever which made him the Head Prefect (‘12-’13) Royal Institute Nugegoda but he was facing a considerable financial challenge. Every US school that partnered with SUSA wanted him and was offering its highest financial aid which still left a gap. Being impressed with Anuja’s stubborn insistence that it’s only US that he wants to go SUSA started looking for a school for Anuja and discovered Indian Hills Community College in Iowa which satisfied all Anuja’s requirements. In a little over one year Anuja would be earning his associate degree and would be heading to a bigger school to complete his bachelors. Two more followed Anuja in quick succession ( Tharuks Pathmaperuma: Lyceum Wattala and Dan Withanage: Lyceum Nugegoda) and ever since IHCC has become one of the most popular destinations for Lankan students.