For many incoming first-year students, Georgetown is a short drive or flight away.
But for some Hoyas in the Class of 2028 — a class that represents 49 different countries — getting to the Hilltop means crossing oceans and traversing continents.
Meet a few incoming international students who are journeying from all corners of the world, including a Brazilian making his way from Porto Alegre, a student from Shanghai who just completed a gap year and a Ukrainian student looking to build the skills to help her war-torn homeland.
A Ukrainian on a Mission to Help Her Country
When Kateryna Kvasha (SFS’28) arrives at Georgetown, it won’t be the first time she’s left home.
Kvasha had to flee her home in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine in March 2022 in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Just a few days after she left, the Russian military occupied her hometown of Izium, which has since been liberated by Ukrainian forces. Since then, she and her mother have lived with a host family in Warsaw, Poland, while her father has stayed behind volunteering with local defense forces.
Since graduating from high school in 2021, Kvasha has taken Polish language classes, worked for a Ukrainian nonprofit and participated in several exchange programs in Portugal and Türkiye. She was also a part of the Department of State’s EducationUSA program to prepare to go to college in the U.S., a goal she had been thinking about since middle school.
Kvasha has always had an interest in economics, history and geography, and the war only reaffirmed her interest in global affairs. And even though she’s never visited Georgetown, it’s why the School of Foreign Service is a dream school for her.
“I think I’ll be speechless [when I get to Georgetown] because it’s something that I’ve been working on for quite a long time now,” she said. “Even after I got my acceptance letter in March, I couldn’t believe it was true until I started receiving more Georgetown emails. I needed time to process I was accepted.”
At Georgetown, Kvasha is looking forward to continuing her Polish language studies while being a part of the Georgetown Scholars Program and potentially getting involved with the Institute of Politics and Public Service and the chess club.
She’s also eager to connect with peers in the Georgetown University Ukrainian Society, many of whom have been impacted by the war and want to return home to rebuild their country. Kvasha is also one of a handful of beneficiaries of the Gracias Family Sunflower Current Use Scholarship Fund, which supports Ukrainian students with need-based and merit-based scholarships.
While Kvasha will be coming to Georgetown from Poland, she’s bringing a piece of her homeland with her to remind her of where she’s from and her goal to one day return to Ukraine.
“The most important thing I’m bringing with me is the Ukrainian flag,” she said. “I brought it to other countries for those exchange programs, so this flag has seen the world together with me.”
Bringing the Brazilian Spirit to the Hilltop
Henrique Soares (SFS’28) will be traveling for over 24 hours before he gets to the Hilltop.
Hailing from Porto Alegre in southern Brazil, he’ll need to take a bus, three flights and a train from Baltimore before getting to DC.
But for Soares, traveling long distances and being an international student is anything but new. After graduating from high school in 2021, Soares studied abroad at an international school in Singapore that offered an International Baccalaureate program.
Soares wanted to go to Georgetown because of its vast liberal arts curriculum, something that he said is not common in Brazil as students typically take courses only in their chosen fields of study.
“I’m going to the SFS because I want to study politics. But even though I have a focus, I can still explore other courses and areas I’m interested in,” he said. “Georgetown’s core curriculum is going to elevate my learning experience because I never put things into boxes. Since I’m going into politics, I know how interconnected things are, so I need to learn a bit about science, language, history, philosophy, mathematics … It’s everything.”
At Georgetown, Soares is looking forward to finding a new home with lifelong friends while joining volleyball and dance clubs and doing community service.
While he’s going to miss three generations of cooking from his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, he said he’s bringing his full Brazilian spirit to campus — along with plenty of Brazilian snacks — with a smile on his face.
“We always want to help others. It doesn’t matter if we’re rich, poor, we just want to make sure people are okay,” Soares said. “That’s what I want to bring to the Hilltop, just being a good friend to people and being nice, connecting [with others] and always being positive.”
Becoming a Global Citizen at Georgetown
Natasha Sung (C’28) is from a wholly different culture in China, but that cultural difference and the opportunity to broaden her perspectives are why she’s coming to Georgetown.
Born in Hong Kong, she moved to Shanghai when she was 12. After high school, Sung spent a gap year in the U.S. in Georgia, where she participated in a Christian leadership program. She took theology and philosophy classes, learned to engage the culture with faith and took part in community service.
Sung chose Georgetown because she wanted to engage with people from all over the world while being in DC, where she hopes to pursue internship and career opportunities in the nonprofit space.
“I’ve always valued a global worldview, and both of my parents raised my sister and I to be global citizens,” said Sung, who is interested in studying sociology. “I wanted to do my university years abroad because I think those are such formational years, and what stood out to me about Georgetown is how diverse the student body is.”
Sung said she’ll miss a good bowl of noodles and her family in China. She’s bringing many pictures from home to remind her of the people in her corner rooting for her. But she’s even more excited for the year ahead. She wants to get involved with Campus Ministry and the Center for Social Justice, as well as take advantage of being in the nation’s capital.
“Having already lived in three different places, my view of home has changed a lot,” she said. “I feel like now I see home as wherever my people are.
“The people at Georgetown will be so special, and the people I have already met have already been really welcoming, and I’m so excited to engage with people from different backgrounds,” she said. “I’m also excited to be in DC. As a non-American, I feel honored that I get to be in the capital during the election … and get to witness a lot of important events shaping our world.”
