THE WORLD ON ONE CAMPUS

My name is Ghadah Alanazi. I am an international law student at the Sturm College of Law.  I am in the LLM program, and this is my last semester. I’m going to share with you how my first semester at DU went. It was the hardest semester, not only for me, but also for all international students, because we are adjusting to a different country and new school.  

On November 6^th, 2021, I received the final admission of the Master of Law in international business transactions from Sturm College. I was so happy and excited to complete my studies in the United States. My first semester started on January 13^th, I had only one month until I had to start studying, which was December. I did not spend Christmas with my friends because I wanted to prepare myself for my first semester at DU.  

When I got my student card

Because I’m from Saudi Arabia, where we have different laws, I spent a lot of time reading more about US law. I read about the University’s teaching policy, and I shared that with my followers through Twitter. 

Unfortunately, my first semester was online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was so sad.  I wanted to be in-person to see the reality of studying and to meet new friends. It was hard for me to talk to people and understand the courses. However, I liked my professors, they were so nice and helpful. 

I felt so disappointed during the first week of classes because I had many assignments and things to do. I did not know what I had to do and where to start. But the thing that helped me the most during the first quarter was the time that I spent reading about law and talking to former students.  I worked hard, and I did not hang out a lot with my friends, only once a week. I missed my family, and I called them to share my first days at college. My parents were happy and waiting for me to finish college. They do not understand how my degree would only take a year and a half because they think degrees take many years to complete. I do not blame them, they missed me a lot and wanted me back sooner. 

I had to read 21 pages for each class. 

After I finished my first semester, I had a long summer vacation. I went to Saudi Arabia and saw my family and relatives. I had not seen them since I came to the United States on August 25, 2019. I was not able to see them in 2020 because of the pandemic, which was the worst year for everyone.

My flight to Saudi Arbaia..

Picture of Washington 

Arabic coffee in the plane.  

At the end of the quarter, I would say I learned many skills, such as time management, teamwork, critical thinking and more. There is a common saying in law schools in the US, which goes: “Think like a lawyer”.  I did not realize that how lawyers think is different from people in other professions do. Beginning a new journey is mostly hard, but it does get easier and becomes a once in a lifetime experience.