First Cabo Verdean student joins Augustana
Rauline Goncalves celebrated not one but two countries’ independence days this past July.
The freshman international student hails from Cabo Verde, a small island nation off the coast of Western Africa with a population of around 600,000, whose national day of independence takes place on July 5. She is Augustana’s first student from her country.
Goncalves arrived in the U.S. this summer to prepare for her first semester at Augustana, where she is majoring in nursing.
It may seem unlikely that a student from a small, far-away country like Cabo Verde ended up attending Augustana, but for Goncalves, it happened more easily than one might think. She said she had always hoped to study abroad, and a U.S. Department of State network, Education USA, helped her find options.
“I wanted a university that most interested me, and Augustana was always at the top of my list,” Goncalves said. “Like, I was trying to take a few out, like a process of elimination, and Augustana always seemed to be there. I was like ‘oh, this must be a sign.’”
A particular area of intrigue for Goncalves was Augustana’s international program, which appealed to her as unique and personal. She said she felt like she was “not going to be just a number.”
“Here they really show you, ‘I care for you,’” Goncalves said. “So I said ‘okay, yeah, I’m going to belong there someday.’”
As she became more interested in Augustana, Goncalves got in touch with Liz Fossum, the international admission counselor for Augustana’s International Programs Office. According to Fossum, the two worked together closely as Goncalves prepared to come to Augustana, including in obtaining Goncalves’s student visa.
“I remember meeting with her over Zoom for the first time, and I walked away with just this smile on my face and a happy feeling because I knew she was going to make an impact on our campus,” Fossum said of Goncalves.
When Goncalves arrived at Augustana, she thought the international student orientation hosted by the IPO and its Augustana Cultural Exchange student ambassadors – designed to foster connection and community with those studying far from home – was an incredible welcome. Goncalves particularly enjoyed the trip to the Black Hills, where she went camping for the first time and hiked Little Devil’s Tower with her new friends and fellow students.
“The work [ACE ambassadors] put in – they’re so great,” Goncalves said. “They made the experience a lot better. I was able to make friends right away.”
The orientation made such a positive impact on Goncalves that she intends to get involved with the IPO and apply to become an ACE ambassador next year.
Umaima Koch – an international student, study away adviser with the IPO and Goncalves’s adviser – helps teach a class with fellow IPO members called General 117. The course assists international students with finding campus and community resources and navigating life in an unfamiliar culture.
Koch said Goncalves eagerly participates in the class with “thoughtful insights.”
According to Koch, personal connection with and between students is essential, especially from places not yet well-represented on campus.
“Having actual people from these places physically present that you can meet and talk to and learn from directly is really unique and special because there’s a lot that you can learn from a person and from that person’s own lived experiences that you may or may not be able to get from, you know, reading a web article or reading a book,” Koch said.
Fossum echoed the importance of diversity on campus, noting that living and learning in a unique community like Augustana is incredibly valuable because it is something that students may never get to experience again.
“Go-getter” students like Goncalves are a perfect fit for Augustana, Fossum said.
“I’m so excited to see the impact she does make,” Fossum said of Goncalves. “And she’s going to pave her own way here, I think, and do things how she wants them to be done in her own, unique, Rauline way.”
