A Spotlight on Elisha Brinkman: An International Student at Stonehill College

By Maya Graham

        Seventeen-year-old Elisha Brinkman is adjusting to college life while simultaneously adjusting to American culture.

Brinkman, a Stonehill freshman, is approximately 3,486 miles away from her hometown of Barendrecht, Netherlands and, according to data from Stonehill College’s website, 0.6 percent of the class of 2022 who are international students come from eleven different countries.

As an international student, Brinkman has gone through a culture shock, similar to what people experience when traveling abroad.

       “It was really hard not to speak Dutch when I first got here and only speak English, but by now I have mostly adjusted,” Brinkman said.

      One of the biggest culture differences Brinkman noticed was the clothing style between Dutch and American teenagers.

    “In the Netherlands I wore a lot of preppy clothes and nice outfits, but now I mostly wear sweatshirts and sweatpants because that’s what everyone here wears,” Brinkman said.

   She has also noticed how in America a lot of things are made to be quick and easy.

   “Everyone seems to be moving at such a fast pace here,” Brinkman said.

She has noticed a change in mentality as well. Brinkman said that in America people only do what they are supposed to.

“If it isn’t in their job description, they will not go out of their way to help,” Brinkman said.

Brinkman said there is a lot more support from classmates, peers, and professionals in America and notices this especially from her teammates on the field hockey team.

One of the main reasons she decided to move more than 3,000 miles away for college was to play varsity field hockey.

    “I wanted to combine field hockey and schooling and in the Netherlands they aren’t affiliated,” Brinkman said.

   Brinkman was scouted by the head coach of the Stonehill College field hockey program, Susan Ciufo, after sending in a video of her season highlights.

  Brinkman was interested in Stonehill College after being recruited and had already been interested in going to college in America.

 She was also recruited by Colby College, Bowdoin College, Amherst College and a few others.

“Most of the other schools were D3 so they don’t give athletic scholarships and it just felt right talking to the coach and teammates...I just kinda knew I wanted to go here,” Brinkman said.

She committed to Stonehill College, a division two school, in May of last year.

She plans on living in America after graduating college if she is set up with a job or is in a serious relationship. Otherwise, she would move back to the Netherlands.

She said she dreams of doing embassy work for foreign affairs back in her home country, though.  

Brinkman said she misses her family and friends and generally living at home.

Being 3,000 miles away restricts the amount of visits home. She said she is not going home for Thanksgiving break, but will stay with a teammate.

She said it is hard to see her teammates greeting their parents after games because she knows that if she was back home her mother and father would be there every time.

The diversity of food from the Netherlands is another thing she misses about home.

She said there is more diversity in the food back where she is from because of the proximity to so many other countries.

“Here it’s all Mexican, Italian, and fried,” Brinkman said.

Brinkman said she has no filter and how she sees it, no one in the Netherlands does either.

“Back home people just say what they think and there’s no problem with it. Here, it’s a different story,” Brinkman said.

She said that she feels as though she can’t be honest without hurting anyone’s feelings. Brinkman said in the Netherlands people are brutally honest and she loves it.