Newly formed Indian Student Association strives to be a ‘home’

The Indian Student Association (ISA), a new organization on campus, hopes to help international students from India feel like they’re at home.

Shaun Khatua, a first-year computer science major and Indian international student, formed the organization in the beginning of February. Khatua said he was inspired to start ISA at USD after learning about similar organizations on other campuses.

“Every college, even community colleges, they have Indian Student Associations,” Khatua said. “We already had one existing, but it got deactivated in 2015, so we needed an association for the Indian student community here at USD.”

Meera Venkatachalam, the associate director of the Honors program and ISA faculty advisor, said the goal of the group is to provide Indian students with a home away from home.

“When you come from another culture and live in the U.S., you come in and you think you speak English, and you’ve watched the Hollywood movies, you met a lot of Americans and you think that you’ll just ‘melt,’” Venkatachalam said. “But the fact is that you’ll go through culture shock.”

Venkatachalam said the organization could help students through the transition into America.

“At some point you really just want to have a group of people that you can hang out with where you don’t have to explain things,” Venkatachalam said. “(You can) be yourself and speak your language.”

ISA also plans to welcome international students by providing transportation to and from the airport. Subharaj Pal, ISA president and a sophomore studying graphic design, said arriving at the airport can be daunting to international students who are just arriving in the U.S.

“When they land in Sioux Falls and they want to come to Vermillion, they don’t know anyone the first time and how they are supposed to reach Vermillion,” Pal said. “The International Club helps sometimes, but we thought that if we form an association, we can help each other out with these sort of things.”

Along with helping Indian students adjust to life in South Dakota, Khatua said ISA plans to throw events to celebrate Indian culture as well as educate the USD population about that culture.

“The main objective of our association is to promote the Indian culture on campus,” Khatua said. “We want more local students from America and from South Dakota to know more about Indian culture and to get involved in it.”

Pal said the organization will begin by throwing small events this semester, such as a potluck, a game night with traditional South Asian games or a movie night.

“We are not starting off with big events all of a sudden, since we just formed the group, and we still need some courage to do something really big,” Pal said.

The group also plans to work alongside the Nepalese Student Association for bigger cultural events such as Holi and Diwali.

Khatua said the members of the organization are diverse, and anyone, regardless of ethnicity, is welcome to join. Of the 21 members, Khatua said there are six Arabs, five Bangladeshis, four Pakistanis, three Americans and one Russian. The group meets on Saturdays at 4:30 p.m.

“Any student of USD who is interested in Indian cultures is more than welcome to join us,” Khatua said.

Pal also said the organization is a way to share Indian culture with those from other backgrounds.

“It’s not about only students from India, we are accepting people from anywhere,” Pal said. “If they’re interested in learning about Indian culture or our traditions, we can share with them, and we are going to make events to share our values and culture with them.”