Malaysian, Japanese and Bulgarian students win awards for
Goshen College international students
GOSHEN, Ind. – Finding one’s way in a different
country and on a new college campus can be challenging, and so can
excelling academically in a second language. Goshen College juniors
Shin Yee Tan of Malaysia and Shihoko Kanemoto of Japan are
recognized for passing on the welcoming spirit they experience at
Goshen College to other international students. And junior Rozalia
Tadjer of Bulgaria has achieved much in the
classroom.
For their supportive servant leadership, Tan, a psychology
major, and Kanemoto, a nursing major, won the fourth annual Biyani
“Giving Something Back” award and Tadjer, an accounting
and math double major, received the first annual Mary Bender Award
for Academic Contributions. The honors were announced at the
International Student Coffeehouse on Jan. 28.
The $500 awards are given to junior international students who
have made outstanding contributions to campus life and are selected
from student, faculty and staff nominations. The “Giving
Something Back” award was established in 2003 by 1992 Goshen
College graduate Raj Biyani, himself an international student from
India. He established the award in memory of his grandfather
Prahlad Rai Biyani, former President and Chief Executive Officer of
Hindustan Motors, the largest automobile manufacturing plant in
India.
Biyani describes his grandfather as a “visionary, an
eternal optimist and relentless in his pursuit of
excellence.” Prahlad Biyani served as president of three
paper mills and a rayon silk factory and a senior member of the
Government India Advisory board for Technical Development. Although
he never attended college himself, Prahlad Biyani supported and
sponsored the education of several individuals in his lifetime,
including Raj’s education at Goshen College. “Goshen
College’s ‘Culture for Service’ motto aligns so
closely with the values of my late grandfather who gave so
generously of himself without expecting anything in return,”
Biyani said. “I want to encourage, inspire and support those
students who are ‘giving something back’ to Goshen
College today and the world in the future.”
Raj Biyani is currently a director within Microsoft’s
Windows division and resides in Redmond, Wash.; he has returned to
campus numerous times to speak in classes and participate in
college events. He and two international student friends from his
college class, G.B. Basnet and Avinash Kessop, also established the
Mary Bender Award for Academic Contributions, in honor of Professor
Emerita of French Mary Bender who, over the years, welcomed many
international students to board in her home.
Tan, Kanemoto and Tadjer are three of 60 international students
from 27 countries studying at Goshen College this year.
International students make up around 8 percent of Goshen
College’s current student enrollment.
Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an
interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau
Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.
###
Goshen College, established in 1894, is a four-year residential
Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite
tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values –
passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking
and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the
church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term
program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of
Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s
“America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named
Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.
