International and Multilingual Students Featured on Scholar Site

The recently launched SLU scholars site will soon also be the home of a new site highlighting the backgrounds, experiences, and interests of St. Lawrence University’s many talented international and multilingual students. 

Each student’s page features a biography and images provided by the student, alongside a map showing the student’s country of origin. Each student’s profile links to an interactive map that allows site visitors to visualize the worldwide regions our students call home. For many students who speak multiple languages, their biographies appear in English as well as in the students’ native languages. The biographies cover a range of topics, from glimpses of the students’ home countries and cultures to their career ambitions and dreams for social change.

Carmen Libombo, ’22, an international student from Maputo, Mozambique and a Digital Scholarship Fellow for 2020-2021, writes that she intends to double-major in International Economics and Multilanguages and minor in Global Studies. 

“I am a social justice advocate and social entrepreneur in the making,” Libombo states. 

Brenda Elisa Rubio Estrada, an international student from Mexico City double-majoring in Economics and Environmental Studies with a minor in Statistics, writes, “I am a feminist and I advocate for the environment; maybe I am a dreamer because I believe in change…"

Estrada continues, "Outside of classes, I go out to the streets to protest for the women who have disappeared and been killed, and I have participated in strikes demanding the protection of nature. Not everything is resistance and struggle, because I also like to enjoy my youth with the people I love. But who really am I? My fights.”

Robin Rhodes, Director of International Student Academic Support, said she started working on the international student mapping project “to celebrate the cultural and linguistic resources our students bring to campus with an emphasis on valuing multilingualism and offering students a way to share this part of their identity.” 

Rhodes said the project began with an instructional mini-grant for ESOL 201 and 202 that focused on writing and identity representation and embraced multilingual narratives across campus. 

“The vision is for the project to grow each year as international and domestic multilingual students contribute an entry to the project,” Rhodes said. She went on to say that “diverse cultural and linguistic resources become a source of pride for the SLU community.”