For the past nine years, Blough has been director of international student and scholar services within the office of international programs. She and her staff of six, including Kratz, provide a variety of services to international students and faculty, including the handling of immigration paperwork, orientation and cultural adjustment workshops, and social activities.

After graduating with a degree in social work, Blough earned a JD at Georgetown University Law School and spent 17 years in the Washington D.C. area, practicing immigration law and providing training in conflict management. In 1997, she became director of international student services at EMU. Seven years later, she moved to JMU.

After Blough went to JMU, Kratz moved from an admissions counseling position at EMU to take her place. In 2011, he joined Blough at JMU to fill a newly created position as assistant director of international student success.

At EMU Kratz developed his abilities through an array of experiences: travels through Northern Ireland and Ireland, two seasons with the soccer team, and years as an assistant at Roselawn and with the Peer Advisory Committee, facilitating peer-to-peer relationships and resolving conflict. Add a business administration degree with a focus on human resources, blend in an interest in international students, and Kratz suddenly, unexpectedly, had a career in higher education.

De’Shay Turner is associate director of multicultural student services at JMU. The Center for Multicultural Student Services oversees 14 student organizations, from the college’s NAACP chapter to Asian and African student unions, and Black and Latino alliances, as well as 10 Greek organizations and their intercultural council.

A self-professed homebody before attending EMU, Turner has first-hand knowledge of how travel can broaden horizons. Since that first trip to Germany and Switzerland on his cross-cultural, he has traveled on alternative spring break trips with JMU students to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, volunteering with mental health patients and helping to build a home in an impoverished village.

— Lauren Jefferson

by Jeff Mellott, Daily News-Record

Securing a student visa to study in the United States already was getting harder by the time foreign terrorists flew jet airliners into the World Trade Center in September 2001.

The now-even-tougher visa stance by the U.S. government is contributing to a decline in foreign students studying in this country.

Anne Nyambura, 35, of Kenya and Andile Dube, 21, of Zimbabwe have both noticed the trend.

They both reported little trouble in getting visas to study at ²ÝÝ®ÉçÇø, but the pair knew of others who were not as fortunate. “For most, it is not easy at all to get all the paperwork that you need to get into this country,” Dube said.

Some of Nyambura