Mutaz Barnawi ’17, Graduate Student from Saudi Arabia

It’s hard to leave somewhere that you’ve been for four years, but after all of that, you know you’re going home. You’re going to see your family and friends. I came here in March of 2013, I learned a new language, and now I own a master’s degree in International Public Relations. I made a lot of friends here in Philadelphia and back in Seattle where I studied English. It’s sad to leave all these people behind, but at the end of the day, I’m going back home. I’m going to see my family, my father, who has been sick and has been in a coma for two years—I’m going back to something bigger. But I won’t forget this place, and I’m coming back. I don’t know when, but I’m coming back to the U.S.