Photo by Ryan C. Harris
Amy Boyd
Reporter
March 3, 2006
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Stephanie Junkin demonstrates fancy footwork in a
fall 2005 game against Virginia Intermont College. Photo by Ryan C. Harris |
Stephanie Junkin, a sophomore soccer player from Brampton, Ontario, Canada, announced in December that she will leave Milligan after the spring semester.
Junkin said that right now “it would be in my best interest to be at home” or at least closer.
Junkin said she is leaving Milligan College because she is homesick. Although Ontario is where she would like to attend college, either Toronto’s York University or the Buffalo, N.Y., area are great options because she could play soccer and be closer to home.
“Canada doesn’t provide athletic scholarships,” said Junkin, who loves soccer. “The level of soccer isn’t as good in Canada as it is in the United States.”
Junkin is not the only Canadian student on campus who has expressed homesickness.
Lauren Robinson, a freshman soccer player from Vancouver, British Columbia, also announced in December that she plans to leave Milligan after this spring semester. Robinson said she wanted either to be home in Canada or at an American school, where she could play soccer closer to home. She is looking particularly at Lindenwood University in Missouri.
Although homesickness is common among international students when they first arrive, not every foreign student expresses homesickness.
Iori Harada, a freshman from Fukuoka, Japan, said she is not homesick because “people are so friendly.”
Similarly, sophomore soccer player Dagmar Yr Arnardottir said she “missed certain things from home, but it wasn’t a problem to accept different ways.”
Many homesick students say they have been helped by mentors and friends. Some students point to the low student-faculty ratio as making it easy for faculty to get involved in students’ personal lives.
David Lilly, a junior soccer player from Coatbridge, Scotland, described his first year as “awful” because he had such a culture shock and it was hard to relate to other students. Yet he explained that people reached out to him, including Associate Professor of Legal Studies Mark Peacock, who took Lilly to mass at a local Roman Catholic Church on several occasions.
Junkin described her first few months at Milligan as “miserable and depressing.” Her mentor, Associate Professor of Bible Dr. Jeff Miller, sent gifts during one week to cheer her up. Similarly, freshman basketball player Leah Anderson invited Robinson to her home in Lexington, Ky., for the Thanksgiving holiday.
According to Traci Smith, director of student success, Milligan has an “early alert system” for students who experience severe homesickness. However, she did not say homesickness was more of an issue among the 17 international students than any other student on campus.
Junkin reflected on her two years at Milligan College and expressed a sadness to leave her friends.
“It makes me the most sad to leave my best friend, Elizabeth Rougeux,” said Junkin. Junkin and sophomore soccer player Rougeux have been roommates and inseparable friends the past two years.
However, Junkin expressed excitement toward the new experiences that lie ahead of her.