Seeking solace here: Two international students at UT have had to flee their homes in hopes of finding security

Students at the University of Toledo come from all different sorts of backgrounds, from suburban American neighborhoods to war-torn countries around the world.

Nearly one out of twenty of these students come from outside the U.S. according to UT’s Center for International Studies and Programs (CISP). These students come for a variety of reasons.

Two university students said it wasn’t easy to leave their home countries, but because of economic turmoil or political insecurity, they were almost forced to.

A UT student who comes from Syria, whose name and identity we cannot use for safety reasons, and Valentina Diaz Trejo, who comes from Venezuela, are among them. They say they carry a heavy burden of fear and can talk at length about terrifying things they and their families have faced in their home countries.

Diaz Trejo said that economic disturbance and violence in Venezuela is part of the reason why she came to UT. According to an article from Forbes, the Venezuelan economy’s inflation rate rose to 64 percent in 2014. The higher the inflation rates, the higher the prices will be.

Diaz Trejo said the issues behind these statistics couple with the oppressive government to cause mass uncertainty and, oftentimes, violence.

“When we were stopped at a traffic light in Venezuela last summer, two gunmen on a motorcycle stuck a gun into my mother’s face and demanded the ring they could see and also stole her phone,” Diaz Trejo said.

Diaz Trejo’s said her worst worry this semester isn’t just crime back home. She also wonders how she will pay her tuition and living expenses here in Toledo.

High rates of exchange, according to Diaz Trejo, make it difficult for her parents to buy enough American dollars. The rates of exchange from Venezuelan bolivars to U.S. dollars have doubled since 2014, according to a CNN article in February.

She said her parents have trouble accumulating and transferring the money she would need for school or for living.

“Sometimes there is no food in my apartment,” Diaz Trejo said, but she said she is keeping herself focused.

“I don’t want to seem fragile,” she said, describing her coping mechanisms. “Sometimes I just block things out so that I can succeed in my studies.”

Diaz Trejo said she also works hard, keeping her family in mind.

“I just want to do well so someday maybe I can bring my family out of there,” she said.

Diaz Trejo isn’t the only UT international student escaping from violence.

“I am doing well today, but I just heard that two of my cousins were beheaded in the last three months,” the UT student from Syria said.

This UT student said their journey to UT began when their middle class family and millions of other Syrians buoyed by the Egyptian Arab Spring and participated in protests that started in March 2011, in the hopes of ending government corruption.

Over time, these protests escalated into violent uprisings from protestors and violent reactions from Bashar Al-Assad’s government.

The violent nature of the conflict once found our UT student in the middle of the action. They were identified as a protest leader and were arrested after a demonstration was over.

“The government knows they cannot kill everyone, so once the crowd leaves, they come in the night for the leaders,” the UT student said.

The UT student was interrogated twice. They did not want to share what happened during those detentions, except that it involved being beaten. The student said they continue to have medical complications from these injuries.

The student said they were forced to flee Syria to a refugee camp in Turkey when there was a possibility of being detained a third time. The student eventually came to stay with relatives in Toledo and is currently seeking asylum.

In Syria alone, about 200,000 people have lost their lives according to a BBC article published in March. The aforementioned UT student said several of their family members are included in this number

The student has a personal connection to those facts because of their constant fear of family and friends in Syria being in danger of arrest or detention. For two of their cousins, this fear was realized when they were beheaded.

The student said the reason for one of his cousins’ death was because the man was a dentist and was suspected of supporting protestors when spies found him collecting alcohol swabs.

“You cannot go into a hospital within six months of a protest, or the government thinks you were injured while protesting,” the student said.

The student said the family tried to pay the $50,000 ransom that was placed on their cousin’s head.

“His mother had paid $20,000 of it, but then he was beheaded anyway,” the student said. “They won’t give us the bodies,” they said, “because that can prove human rights violations.”

The student said it’s hard to deal with these problems emotionally, but there are resources on campus that can help.

When the anxiety over the fate of family became overwhelming to the point the student could not come to classes, a teacher put them in contact with the UT Counseling Center.

“We are always willing to come to meet the student in the faculty office if the student is more comfortable there,” said Stanley Edwards, director of the Counseling Center.

Edwards said the Counseling Center’s graduate assistance recruitment program has yielded two or three international students, which adds a fresh perspective on the international student’s needs.

UT also has resources available that can help a student cope with rising bills and costs. Diaz Trejo said she has used these resources to help with her money problems recently.

Assistant Vice Provost Sammy Spann, head of CISP, was able to help find her scholarship support to help pay her tuition bills and living costs.

Spann said CISP has an open-door policy to all students and a strong, team approach to find resolutions to their problems.

“CISP has a phone tree of sorts, a listing of those who might be of help to a troubled student, working in conjunction with the departments of Student Conduct, Scholar Services, Foreign Languages and the Counseling Center,” Spann said.

Despite UT administration efforts, both Diaz and the UT student said they often have a sense of isolation here.

According to them, the loneliness comes from a seeming indifference among domestic classmates. Sometimes, the lack of curiosity seems tinged with ignorance.

“People see my skin and think ‘Mexican’ and assume things based on what they think they know of that country,” Diaz Trejo said.

She wants everyone to know about her proud heritage, her hard-working family and her father’s plans to take her into the family accounting business when she finishes her degree.

“In my country, before the Civil War, we hosted exchange students and wanted to know everything about their cultures and customs” the UT student said.

“Here,” they said, “no one asks us about who we are.”