Kevin Kujawa

​   Kevin Kujawa is an advisor for international students at Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC), in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the only advisor who focuses on international students at the school, and there is no official international student office at MCTC. Kujawa is also an official counselor, so he is able to help international students, especially with emotional problems that are caused when international students are trying to adjust to the school.​
 

   MCTC currently has 165 students with F-1 visas, and they make up about one to two percent of the student body. Korea, Japan, and Kenya are where most of these international students are coming from. “This school has always had a very diverse population,” Kujawa said. The school also has a high population of Somali and Hmong immigrants at the school. MCTC has even put in prayer rooms for Muslim students to pray, and the school’s cafeteria also caters to popular Somali and Asian foods in order to appeal to MCTC’s diverse population. Kujawa does not advise these students due to the fact they do not hold F1 visas.

Kujawa said that many students get frustrated as they are trying to adjust to college life in the United States. “I let them know that it is to be expected and this is something everyone goes through,” Kujawa said, “and I tell them that if you keep trying and try not be so judgmental it will get better.”
International students have to take a TOEFL exam and an accuplacer exam in order to be admitted.

   

   The accuplacer exam is used in all two-year institutions across the United States that places students in the appropriate educational levels they need, one of them being English. Kujawa said that the accuplacer exam does not accurately place international students in the proper English level courses.