Student from Sweden learns how to identify myths about America

Saturday, Sept. 26, 1998 | 3:16 a.m.

Twenty-two-year-old Jacqueline Kadiri left her family in Sweden to become one of more than 200 international students enrolled at the Community College of Southern Nevada.

"My father and mother were reluctant to send me here. They weren't sure I would be safe," said Kadiri, who has aspirations of becoming an international journalist.

Kadiri isn't a typical Swede.

Her father is a career diplomat from Tanzania, a relatively peaceful nation on the southeastern coast of Africa where she was born. He was assigned to the Tanzanian Embassy in Stockholm more than a year ago.

It was in Stockholm that Kadiri discovered CCSN on the Internet while searching for colleges to attend.

"I found it cheap compared to other colleges and universities, something my father could afford," she said.

She overcame her father's initial reluctance to allow her to come to Las Vegas by telling him she wanted to attend school in a city where jobs were plentiful so that she might earn her own way.

That, apparently, was a convincing argument.

Since her arrival several weeks ago, she has discovered that Las Vegas is not as wild as many believe.

And the United States as a whole is not what she thought it would be.

"The world sees America through Jerry Springer," said Kadiri, referring to the television-show host who puts strange characters on stage. "I've learned that not everyone in this country is psycho, that most are reasonable people."

Dispelling myths about America is one of the arguments in favor of an international student program -- when foreign students return home they take with them a clearer vision of what people are actually like in this country, and while they are here Americans learn what people from other countries are like.

That is, such exchanges occur when people take advantage of the learning experience available to them.

Kadiri says one of the few disappointments she has experienced since enrolling at CCSN is that it is difficult to make friends.

"I find it very lonely in the classroom," she said, noting that in her native Tanzania, bonds among classmates formed very quickly and were very strong, while in this country most students keep to themselves. "I feel like everyone here is a stranger."

Most of her friends are those she has made in the apartment complex across the street from CCSN where many international students live.

Kadiri said her time is divided among going to class, studying and attending a Pentecostal church.

The eldest child in her family, Kadiri calls Sweden at least once a week to speak to her family, which includes her parents, three sisters and a brother.

In two years she plans transfer to UNLV and major in journalism, a profession she began to pursue in Tanzania after graduating from high school and attending a six-month journalism training program.

Being a journalist is different in Tanzania than in America, she said. A story that offends someone there, especially someone with power, can get you killed.

Kadiri said she was a general-assignment reporter for several months, but began to refuse to cover politics for fear it would get her father, as well as herself, in trouble with authorities.

After she earns a journalism degree, Kadiri said, she would like to return to Tanzania as an international journalist.

Getting a good job in journalism in Tanzania depends on a number of things, including willingness to pay bribes, who you know and what tribe you belong to -- Kadiri is a member of the Muha Tribe.

Despite the fact that the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania was attacked by international terrorists earlier this year, Kadiri said her country is, in general, very peaceful.

The student from Tanzania via Sweden is looking forward to her next four years in Las Vegas.

"(CCSN) has taken care of me since I arrived," she said. "My father is not worried anymore."