The outside perception of Fairfield is that the typical Fairfield student is a Polo-shirt-wearing, preppy guy, or a Burberry-carrying, collar-flipped girl. While this may be true of some students, there is quite a bit of international culture here at Fairfield.
Phyllis A. Fitzpatrick, the director of management, explained, “We have 43 undergraduate full-time international students, six of whom have arrived in this year’s freshman class.”
“There are 23 countries currently represented in the International Students program ranging from France, England and Canada, to Honduras, Jamaica and Hong Kong,” said Fitzpatrick.
As anyone who has ever been to a party with someone from England knows, there is nothing quite like that English accent to use as a conversation starter with the guy or girl of your choice. Alex Cunliffe ’07 is one of those lucky lads who lays down his British charm on any given Friday or Saturday night.
Cunliffe was able to capitalize on his athletic ability and he is now playing soccer for Fairfield. He got his start in soccer playing in one of the major soccer hubs of the world, his home country of England.
“I was captain of the England U-18’s a few years ago and we were invited to tour North Carolina and play three games,” said Cunliffe. “I was also told we would have the chance to talk to coaches about going to college in America, playing football (soccer) and studying.”
Needless to say, the rest is history. Cunliffe shined for his U-18 team and he was contacted by several well-known coaches about playing Division I soccer for their teams. However, it was Coach Carl Rees who was able to lure Cunliffe to Fairfield.
“Coach Rees continued to stay in touch with me, whereas other coaches just sent me letters and never really made good contact,” said Cunliffe. “He came to meet my parents and told us about Fairfield. After that, my mind was made up and I decided to give it a chance for six months.”
Cunliffe immediately took a liking to his surroundings and the people of Fairfield.
“I only needed a week to realize that I wasn’t going to go home. I’m close with a lot of the lads on the team and it feels as though I’ve been mates with them all my life,” he said. “Also, the people I’ve met here have really helped me adjust and I’ve really found it easy to enjoy being here.”
Like Cunliffe, Greg Turner ’05 of Jamaica shared this same positive experience at Fairfield, however, he didn’t quite know what to expect when he arrived in Connecticut a little over three years ago.
“I obtained a scholarship from Fairfield and I had looked at the school online a bit, but I hadn’t visited in person…I hadn’t talked to current students, teachers or alumni at all,” said Turner. “I had no idea what to expect.”
Turner lived in “the pit” in Gonzaga his freshman year with 30 other guys whom with he got along with very well. Turner remains close with many of the guys and currently lives with one of them.
Turner is able to stay busy by being the intramural sports supervisor, a member of the student court and vice president of the Beta Alpha Psi accounting honors society. Certainly with all of this on his plate, Turner can’t help but field those hard hitting questions about Jamaica all day.
“The most common question anyone asks me once they find out I’m from Jamaica is ‘Have you ever seen Cool Runnings?'” he said.
While much has been said about the Jamaican bobsledding team after Cool Runnings was made, no one seems to be focusing on Hungarian tennis players. Fortunately for Fairfield freshman Balazs Szikla ’08, we are able to find out more about this type of athlete.
“I found the school on the Internet last year and I really liked it, it seemed to have good academics and it looked nice. I emailed Coach Jeff Wyshner about playing for the school and he emailed me very regularly after that,” said Szikla.
Coach Wyshner kept in touch with Balasz and gave him the chance to play on the team, and from all accounts the relationship is working out well.
“Balasz is a good player with good fundamentals. We’ve really enjoyed having him on the team so far, he’s a really good guy,” said Paul Goldbeck ’07 of the tennis team.
Balasz has only been on campus for a month, but he has thoroughly enjoyed himself so far.
“I haven’t been able to go out that much on the weekends because we have tennis matches, but I’ve had a chance to go out on a few weekdays. We have a break from November to January and I’m looking forward to going out then,” he said.
Another one of Fairfield’s international students, however, has no problem in finding his way out on any given night. Irishman Mark Reidy is a graduate student who is currently enrolled in Fairfield’s Masters of Finance program.
“I love Fairfield so far, it’s completely what they told me it was going to be,” he said. “It’s not just an academic education. The Jesuit tradition has educated me spirituality, further explained Christianity and showed me how to be more charitable. That’s exactly the reason I wanted to come here.”
Reidy, originally from Limerick, Ireland, received the “Father John Conlisk Scholarship.” This scholarship is organized by a group of Irish-Americans who sponsor one student from Ireland every year to attend school in America. The scholarship chose Fairfield University as the ideal place to educate Reidy because of its ability to educate in so many ways.
“I was thrilled when I found out that I received the scholarship,” he said. “I knew that it would be a great opportunity. I was nervous, though, because I am the first person in my family to attend college and I am the first person to go to America.”
Reidy has already found a niche in the sports at Fairfield. He is on the rugby and soccer teams.
“Playing rugby and soccer has been great, all of the lads on the team give me great respect because they know how big the two sports are overses, ” Reidy said. “I’ve met a great base of people here and I’m really having a great time. I would recommend this school and this experience to anyone.”
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