She loves MSU, and she loves the environment.

De Moya, an environmental studies and agriscience freshman, came from the Dominican Republic on scholarship to study what she loves most: agriculture and environmental issues.

De Moya is one of 597 sponsored students attending MSU from outside the United States, of which 23 are from the Dominican Republic.

The number of international students has increased by about 10 percent, with a total of 3,341 undergraduate students, in fall 2011. For De Moya, finding her stride at MSU hasn’t been difficult.
“So far, I love it,” De Moya said. “Everything is very modern.”

Getting an education
When it came down to choosing colleges with her daughter, Sonia De Moya, a resident of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, wanted her daughter to stay close to home, but Georgina De Moya wanted to study agriscience and there weren’t any good options for it in the Dominican Republic, so, MSU was added to the list.

Good school. Check.

Big campus. Check.

A town with a low crime rate. Check. That bit was especially important to her mother.

“It would have been easier for me to have her at home, but the field she wants to study ­— they don’t have it here,” Sonia De Moya said.

Georgina De Moya applied to MSU and applied to a Dominican Republic government scholarship, hoping to get enough funding. They waited three months and finally received happy news via email.

“When we finally got the news, it was the best thing ever,” Georgina De Moya said. “It felt like a relief.”

Being a sponsored student means the costs of attending university are paid by a sponsoring agency such as the government of the student’s home country or an employer. As of fall 2012, MSU has sponsored students from 70 different countries.

Marketing freshman Natalie Escotto, who is a sponsored student from the Dominican Republic and went to Georgina’s high school, said she was happy to come to school with a friend from home.

“We were pretty excited,” Escotto said. “By that time, we thought we were going to have to go to the Dominican university.”

For Sonia De Moya, her daughter getting a scholarship was a proud moment. Sonia invested a lot into her daughter’s education, dipping into her retirement fund to pay for an expensive bilingual private high school.

“If anything happens to me, I want her to be prepared to go to college in another country,” Sonia De Moya said. “I still think the universities in the U.S. are 10 times better than the best university here (in the Dominican Republic).”

A love of nature
Georgina De Moya’s love of nature started back in the Dominican Republic, where at 15, she joined the 350 movement, which is led by volunteers wanting to help solve the climate crisis.

The Dominican Republic has struggled with a wide variety of environmental issues as more people move into cities, resulting in problems with water resource management and waste disposal, according to InteRDom, a research and study program supported by the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development.

“I would definitely love to work in my country to change policies toward agriculture and environment,” Georgina De Moya said.

De Moya’s major is a program in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Among international students, the college is the fifth most popular in terms of enrollment, according to fall 2011 statistics from the Office for International Students and Scholars, or OISS.

Interim Dean for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Doug Buhler said the college tends to be popular among international students because in many parts of the world, food supply and climate change are big issues.

Georgina De Moya brought her caring for the environment down to a grassroots level.

Sonia De Moya said her daughter was very conscious of recycling and other initiatives, a passion that Escotto said has carried over to MSU.

Saying goodbye
Assistant Director of the OISS Ravi Ammigan, who was once an international student himself, said it can be hard for some international students to adjust to life in a new country.

“You miss your own community,” Ammigan said. “As exciting as it might be to come and study abroad, you still do miss your family and friends.”

A plane ride and a nine-hour car ride from Maryland later, Sonia De Moya and Georgina De Moya were saying goodbye in front of McDonel Hall, Georgina’s new home.

With her hands cupping her cheeks and tears running down her face, Sonia De Moya lovingly stared at her daughter. Georgina beamed and waved bye, giving her mother another hug.

“I love you,” Sonia De Moya said, her voice cracking.

“Coming to university, it’s kind of weird and exciting, and I’m actually really nervous about it,” Georgina De Moya said.

“(In the Dominican Republic), I have my family, my mom. (At MSU), I will have none of that.”