<p>hey internationals, before thinking of going to the US, I hope you've really struck it big in your homeland. Do people know you? And how far has your influence reached?</p>
<p>Make sure you're well known and you're an outstanding person, so that when you go out...</p>
<p>How far has YOUR influence reached?</p>
<p>So I want to know what you guys are up to (something really special) in your community, or what you've contributed (outstanding) to your schools and cities. </p>
<p>Name it...</p>
<p>Trying to be modest, I contributed a lot to music in my school. I won the altruism award. I help guys out in so many ways - I am the RUNSMASTER. Guys in church, neighbourhood know me to some extent. I love helping people and seeing them happy.</p>
<p>I hope to get into the news here in my country before i travel out. I dream wild but they come true. Recently, I've been nominated as the rep for nigeria at the GYLC.</p>
<p>Hey, I saw a guy my age, who won a story -writing competition, went to Norway,took pictures with Nobel laureates, won some money. THis guy grabbed a full 10 minutes on national news. I melted...</p>
<p>I'm just challenging guys here to make sure they make significant contributions to their home countries before they leave so people can remember them.</p>
<p>I'm in the interact club, SADD.. so that's kinda like service to the community.
I havent been on the newspaper or anything.</p>
<p>But this girl at my school, she's head girl, she's gone to egypt (i think) with the prime minister, published a book, really smart, etc..</p>
<p>Yes. I'm nothing compared to Lara.</p>
<p>well-known and outstanding...how do you define that?</p>
<p>What's her full name? - I mean Lara?</p>
<p>Well alyssa09, the main reason is this: most people want to study abroad because they think that when they finish, they will be well-respected and recognised. what I'm trying to say is that this is not true. You can make an impact anywhere in the world and your background doesn't matter.</p>
<p>So if you think that studying in the US will give you respect and recognition, forget it. It starts with your own initiative and conscious effort. And that points to the fact studying abroad may give you a fine education but the onus lies on you to contribute significantly to your distinguished learning community - because it's the people that make the institution.</p>
<p>I'm just trying to point out the essence of aiming for a broad education abroad.</p>
<p>I am not influencing my enviroment, my enviroment is influencing me.</p>
<p>Well, I am not that well-known, but I feel I am doing my bit in helping my country.
I've been a debater for 5 years and I found this activity incredibly rewarding and a very effective way of winning people for liberal democracy, which I suport. Two years ago, I and some friends of mine founded an NGO to promote debate. I've coordinated lots of projects for this NGO, including the first intl. debate tournament in Romania, other tournaments, trainings etc. The NGO is not that big, at the moment it has 90 members, but you should take into account it was built from scratch. Most of these people will be future leaders, many with bright prospects ahead of them. If some of our future leaders understand the principle of tolerance for ideas and persons, my country should be a little bit better.</p>