Olga Shinkaruk and Sebastian Tena BA (Honours) MEXICO & RUSSIA A match made in international higher education bliss The University of Windsor is a global village. The city of Windsor is the fourth most diverse community in Canada, only behind the major cities; Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Windsor is a hub of multinationals from over 100 interesting countries. The University’s student body itself represents 80 different countries. Meet Olga Shinkaruk and Sebastian Tena. They are a match made in international higher education bliss. Olga is an international student from Russia and Sebastian is an international student from Mexico. The married couple met while going to school in Switzerland and after completing their education, moved back to Sebastian’s homeland. While in Mexico, Olga and Sebastian, evaluated different universities and programs on-line, applied to four overseas universities and got admissions offers from all four. They chose University of Windsor. “We chose University of Windsor because they would always keep in touch and follow up, this is very important when you are somewhere else and are applying for schools because wait time can translate to losing a semester so I appreciated how they handled it, very professionally,” said Sebastian Tena. Sebastian is in his second year majoring in International Relations (Honours). He plans to complete his four year program in three years as does Olga who is also in her second year majoring in Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) with a focus on Finance. In addition to the six courses that Olga and Sebastian are taking each semester to meet their own deadline of graduating a year early Olga and Sebastian work part-time and are active in student societies such as International Student Orientation Week and Volunteer International Student Association (VISA), a program connecting Canadian students with international students through weekly social events and outings. Olga’s ultimate goal is to have a career in Finance. “Since I am in Finance and I am very interested in that field I would probably work for a very large financial group or investment company and I am pretty confident that it is there for me,” said Olga. Sebastian, on the other hand plans to continue his studies and go to graduate school. He wants to go to law school and eventually work in non-governmental organizations such as the United Nations or the World Trade Organization. “Windsor is a multicultural city and it is very important nowadays to know at least one thing about a number of different cultures and to be able to take classes and work with people from diverse backgrounds,” said Sebastian. “I want to go to the right school and it would be nice if I can get into the University of Windsor’s Law school after I complete my undergraduate program” added Sebastian.