Foreign Students Have Something to Say about Obama, Too

Posted on January 21, 2009
Filed Under News, Politics, The Youth Vote | By Jessica Gross

Many journalists have pointed to the “youth vote” as a major factor droving Barack Obama’s election in November. But the two million people who braved cold and crowds to witness yesterday’s Inauguration in Washington, D.C. included not only a large number of young Americans, but a lot of foreign students, too.

Today, Inside Higher Ed interviewed a number of Inauguration attendees from D.C.’s International Student House. The prevailing sentiments: Americans’ decision to elect Obama was our first true manifestation of democracy — and having Obama in the White House will make foreign students proud to be studying in the U.S., rather than ashamed.

A few of the best quotes, after the jump.

From Charlotte Junius, a German student interning at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation:

We have a saying in Germany that basically says, someone who washes plates can move up to become a millionaire….This means, basically, that with your own strength you can build up your own existence. I think that’s a big part of Obama’s appeal around the world. Growing up and becoming president, he did that on his own.

From Abraham Akoi, a Sudanese master’s student at Johns Hopkins University:

In Africa, American elections are a good lesson, especially in those countries that are ruled by dictators who do not want to give up the power that they cling to. The democracy that the American people have been talking about for centuries has now been met with the election of Obama. Americans talk about equality, freedom and liberty. Now, they have really shown it.

And from Jacob Maillet, a French student doing doctoral research in D.C., who didn’t have the same warm-and-fuzzy feelings as Junius and Akoi:

What struck me about Obama’s speech was that it wasn’t that positive….He spoke a lot about the war. Even though he has said he wants to pull out of Iraq, he seems to want to continue the war on what he spoke of as ‘a far-reaching network of violence and hatred.’ You find echoes of Bush’s rhetoric in his speech. I was surprised because I expected him to be much more of a pacifist. We’ll have to see if he is really going to change policy, because there are great expectations of that in France.

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