Coming to America

Posted by Sam Podio in International

Originally from India, Graphic Design majors Shruti Sharma (Bombay) and Sanjana Bhatnagar (New Delhi)—who go to school together back home—have spent the last few months studying abroad at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. Sharma and Bhatnagar share their experiences in America with Jackalope Magazine.

Jackalope Magazine: What’s different about SFUAD from your school back home?

Shruti Sharma: India doesn’t really give you the chance to choose a particular subject in graphic design so what I like about being here is that I can take certain subjects that weren’t available back home.  I could touch upon some subjects, but I couldn’t really study them back home.

Sanjana Bhatnagar: For me, the way the classes are taught is completely different. Over here, there’s a lot more room for interpretation; there’s no right or wrong answers. It makes me want to look into things a lot more.

JM: What have you experienced that is different about America and India?

SS: It’s a lot less conservative here than back home so we have a lot more freedom and that influences our thought process. Also because the people here are so different, it’s widened our thought process. Everyone’s so friendly so that was really unnerving when I first got here.

SB: It’s different. People are different. Things are different. People don’t look at you funny when you’re walking down the street as often as they do at home. Everything is different.

JM: What do you think of campus life?

SS: Living on campus makes my life really easy because it takes me an hour to get to each class back home and over here I just wake up and go to class and it’s just very convenient. It’s also nice to live with a lot of students that are doing the same thing that you’re doing.

SB: It’s different from what I expected. I thought I’d get really bored of people around me, but I didn’t realize that I’d be living with people doing different subjects. There’s always someone else to be with and it’s really nice.

JM: Was it hard to make friends here?

SB: No, everyone here is so friendly. I was a little nervous, but eventually it became easier.  People don’t judge you, and if they do, they don’t show it at all and that makes it easier to just go up and talk to someone.

SS: I think people that our friends told us about made it easier for us to get to know people here because a bunch of our classmates came here for Art Fest. They gave us a few contacts and I think it was very instrumental in us having friends here because you meet one person and everyone here knows everyone else.

JM: What do you miss about India?

SS: Food.

SB: Yeah, food. And I miss my car.

JM: Would you want to stay here if you could?

SS: I have mixed feelings on the matter. I would stay for the people, but there’s a part of me that will always want to go back home.

SB: It’s different for me because I grew up here in New Jersey for a while so I’d rather stay here because I feel more comfortable in this environment than I do in India.

JM: Do you think you’ll miss America when you return to India?

SS: We will definitely miss it here because even though it’s only been a couple months, we’ve really settled into life here and made friends here. A lot of friends I’ve made here are better friends than I’ve made back home. I’m definitely going to miss the people.