Nadia Artiomenco
Staff Reporter
Fidan Sudzadinowa, a girl with a last name that can hardly be pronounced by a native English speaker, is as multidimensional and sophisticated as her background suggests. Although her family is originally from Baku, Azerbaijan, Fidan was born in Moscow and considers her mother language to be Russian. Fidan moved to Poland with her parents when she was three years old, only to leave for the United States at the age of 17.The Cultural Interchange Program brought Fidan to the Hillcrest High School in Idaho Falls, Idaho where she studied for a year, which turned out to be life-changing for at least another four years.
Besides the successful completion of the twelfth grade and the momentous acceptance to McDaniel College with an encouraging scholarship, a year in Idaho led Fidan to several realizations about the United States. It turned out that not all places in the US are as vibrant and lively as Long Island, NY, Los Angeles, CA and Miami, FL, where Fidan traveled with her parents to visit relatives long before she came here to study.
“It was a striking experience,” admits Fidan, “there were no people on the streets [of Idaho Falls]? You could say ? it’s quiet, but honestly- it was just boring.”
Regardless of these frustrations Fidan was able to succeed in high school and get herself comfortable with the culture of a country she chose to study in for four more years. Although cultural miscommunications have certainly taken place more than once, Fidan doesn’t think that the differences are worth emphasizing more than the similarities.
One of her mottoes might have been “never say never” as she promotes assimilation, yet “be and stay yourself” would then be another one as she recognizes the importance of not losing one’s identity in an attempt to adjust.
“I realized that becoming a part of a community without losing myself is so significant that I agree to spend some extra time on it,” laughs Fidan. The hardest and most memorable compromise to Fidan was to react to the widely used “How are you?” as to a greeting, rather than as to a question. As insignificant as it might seem to a person who grew up in the United States, to Fidan an innocent “How are you?” dropped by someone without any intention to hear her answer, seemed unthinkable.
“I wouldn’t want to be overdramatic about this, but it could literally ruin my day back then,” reveals Fidan. Although today she has overcome that reaction and her roommates in a North Village apartment Rachael ’09 and Dijah ’09 describe Fidan as “very open-minded, friendly, loveable and energetic,” which certainly satisfies Fidan’s first motto, she is concerned with following the second one: “I’m afraid of getting into a habit of doing things I really don’t like.”
Philosophy classes with Dr. Peter Bradley are certainly not one of those ‘things’ since she adores the classes where critical thinking is emphasized over pure memorization. It is no wonder then that she is majoring in Philosophy along with Political Science, where discussions are vital for understanding. Fidan’s appreciation for the subject turns out to benefit the whole class as, according to Bradley, “she brings a different perspective and depth to the discussions in the classroom.” Especially memorable to Bradley is the game where Fidan was assigned to defend the position of the old Marxism school in the frame of the course “Anarchy: Social and Political” and turned out to be a “brilliant choice” because of the depth and of knowledge Fidan was able to bring to the game.
Moreover, Fidan’s willingness to contribute to and be an ardent part of the community is not restricted by the classroom walls. Although “not a fan of delineating ‘skills’ for the resume purposes”, Fidan cannot deny that her cosmopolitan perspective was widely applicable while working for the International Programs Office (IPO) on campus. Helping the IPO Director Rose Falkner to guide the study abroad applicants through the process of getting ready to travel to the destination of their choice is not always easy, but the purpose is of great, sometimes even personal importance and the results are inspiring.
“It is nice to see that increasing number of students is eager to experience living abroad for a semester or two,” says Fidan, ” I wish everyone courage and curiosity to take a chance and study abroad.” And the former is certainly so, as Chin Chin ’10 also an IPO assistant confirms, “the number of students going abroad is gradually increasing: around 50 students going abroad in the spring ’09.”
Fidan believes that “an opportunity to travel is one of the best ways to grow and appreciate complexity of life” but in her case every more or less long vacation implies traveling when she goes back home to Poland to visit her family and friends. Also language barrier is usually not a problem to her and it is hard to list the languages in which Fidan can communicate, without feeling envious. “Although far from being fluent in all of them, I know I will have no problem with ordering a sandwich with cheese and a cup of coffee in Polish, Russian, English, Spanish or German.”
So even though to Fidan “phrases like ‘motivated worker’ or ‘flexible learner’, however necessary they may be, always resonate with fake generalizations” it would be hard to disprove that those two descriptions cannot be applied to her.
When talking about her future plans, Fidan’s voice becomes less confident. However, there is no reason to think that her enthusiasm, thoughtfulness, decisiveness and open-mindedness won’t find an application in today’s world.